


Similarities

by HappytheExceed



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Family, Hurt Jim, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Past Child Abuse, Star Trek: Into Darkness Spoilers, Tarsus IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-30
Updated: 2013-09-13
Packaged: 2017-12-25 03:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 32,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/947843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappytheExceed/pseuds/HappytheExceed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Similarities

**Author's Note:**

> The setting of this fic is inspired by "It Goes On" by Penn Flinn and various fics by Starsinger especially "A Long Road" while the plot was inspired by the discovery of Joanna McCoy's profile in Star Trek wiki which I'm quite shocked.
> 
> This fic was also inspired by this fanvideo, "Dirt in my Eyes" (http://youtu.be/qpH0hSTHkQo) remove the space when you paste the link. It suits Jim nicely. I can't stop listening to the song or watch the video when I wrote my fic. 
> 
> This fic is focused around Bones. Bones was going to help his daughter Joanna to get over the ordeal which was rather similar to what Jim had faced unknown to him as Jim had "erased his existance" of the records on Tarsus IV.
> 
> This is my experiment in writing a Star Trek fic and this fic is unbeta-ed. To be honest, I'm not a detailed person. I admit don't have much knowledge in Star Trek universe. I will simply write whatever came up in my mind. You may criticise my writing or my idea. I'm trying my best. Pardon me if I mess up. This will linked to the "sequel" I'm currently working on which I may not want to post depending on the response of this fic.
> 
> Star Trek does not belong to me. I prefer to admire it :)

**Chapter 1: Similarities**

Dr. McCoy took off running after hanging up his communicator. His daughter had returned to the Earth from Cerberus. She was rescued from the planet where it had experienced a crop failure and Joanna almost starved to death along with the whole of the population resided there.

He hugged his daughter as soon as she was wheeled down from the shuttle.

"Joanna." McCoy was unable to hold back his tears. His daughter was safe and sound back to his arms. He hugged his girl tightly.

"Hush hush. Daddy, I'm fine." Joanna McCoy wiped off his dad's tears with her weak and thin hands.

"I'm not crying." McCoy pushed her hands away and wiped off his tears himself. His ten-year old daughter looked so thin and frail yet was strong enough to console him. He felt ashamed. The truth was he was worried. When the news just reached him, he did not think much about it as Starfleet would do something. It was only when his sister contacted him, he realized how drastic the situation was. Cerberus could well become the next Tarsus IV.

Starfleet was in the midst of recovering from the damage caused by Khan and Admiral Marcus earlier and did not have enough resources to spare to save Cerberus despite McCoy's desperate plea to the Admirals. Not even his Commander, Spock had got through the thick skulls of the brass. He learnt that if he was unable to get through Pike, there was no way others would listen and put up with him with his multiple attitudes and he was of course dismissed from the Admiral's office.

Fortunately, a philanthropist forked out his fortune to help the colony through the crisis. His sister and her husband decided to send Joanna back to McCoy while he was being stationed on Earth as the Enterprise was undergoing repair.

McCoy watched as his daughter was wheeled away to the hospital for a check-up. As he was not assigned to station on the hospital on Earth, he could only let Dr. Boyce take over. After the incident with Khan, McCoy was not exactly in good terms with Dr. Boyce. McCoy as the Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise was meddling in their work on Earth which he should not be doing. He fought to become Jim's primary physician when Jim was undergoing treatment in the hospital. At the end of the day, they still had respect for one another.

McCoy was on the verge of breaking down. He had been on the emotional roller coaster without any one he could confide to. He could not count on the Vulcan, not yet, and not Scotty. He shut his eyes tightly trying to get a hold on himself when he felt a hand on his shoulder rendering him support. He knew who it was instantly.

"Leonard. She will be ok." His female colleague, Uhura said gently. She had come to see if McCoy needed any help as soon as she heard of Joanna's arrival to Earth. They were glad that the situation had not gotten any worse.

* * *

Joanna was being assigned for a special diet to restore the nutrients and weight she had lost during the period she stayed on Cerberus. She was staying with McCoy. McCoy smiled at his daughter as she took off in a swing. She was recovered physically for most part after four weeks of constant supervision by her father and they had gotten closer than ever. Psychologically, it was going to take time.

That was when all the hell broke loose. Spock took on a mission as the whole lot of them could not do much while waiting for Mr. Scott going after Starfleet for resources to fix his girl up other than mission on the Earth itself.

"This is the mission spec. Under the orders by Admiral Archer, we are to contact these eight people, interview them to get their statement." Spock passed his PADD to McCoy.

"These are?"

"The survivors of the Tarsus IV incident who had apparently knew Governor Kodos' face." Spock answered for him. "All eight of them were gathered on Earth some time ago for some reason. I had approved one of the survivors, Lieutenant Kevin Riley transfer to Enterprise recently. He had put up five requests for transfer which somehow did not go through despite his competent credential." He continued. "Doctor, the reason I accepted this mission is because I believe you might be interested after what your daughter had gone through. These people could help Joanna to come to terms of the incident."

Spock was right. Since the starvation incident, Joanna had not ever enjoyed her food no matter what was given to her as a special diet. She was eating really slowly fearing that she would not get to eat again. He did not expect the green blooded hobgoblin to go to this extent to help him. He should really change his mind about him being unfeeling. He shuddered at his memory of his rage during the Nero and the incident with Khan.

"Should I say thank you?" McCoy asked sarcastically.

"I would not reject if it comes from our Chief Medical Officer." He replied nonchalantly. McCoy thought he saw the smirk from the Vulcan noting the slight tilt on the corner of his mouth.

 _"Damn the hobgoblin!"_ McCoy forced a smile anyway. "You are aware that I'm a doctor, not an interviewer right?" He "corrected" Spock of his profession once again.

"I will contact them to drop by your apartment. Due to their unique situation, you are to keep this mission a secret among the crews of the Enterprise. The survivors are our only hope to nail Governor Kodos."

"Aye sir!" McCoy replied for the sake of replying and sent him out.

"Send my regards to your daughter".

* * *

That night, McCoy put his daughter to bed and kissed her good night after telling her one of her favourite bedtime stories. He was finally able to settle down on his sofa sipping his beloved brandy to read up the mission spec in detail and the profiles of the eight survivors who knew the face of the bastard who ordered the genocide. He could not comprehend how all of them actually survived the ordeal. They had survived much worse than the inhabitants of Cerberus did.

"They were led by a boy named JT whose resilience pulled them through the hardest of time." McCoy swiped his PADD. He noticed that that name did not appear on the list of survivors. The answer was apparent. He felt sorry for the leader. It seemed to him that he had sacrificed himself and disappeared to the stars to ensure that the others will survive just like his first and best friend in Starfleet. Life was never fair.

He could vividly remembered Jim's last moment in the hospital. True, he had revived Jim using Khan's serum. Never did he expect that Jim's condition went downhill and he finally passed away under the sea of stars of the night sky.

"Jim, do you know that there is a boy who is just like you? I'm sure you will be surprised to know." McCoy mumbled to the air as if Jim was sitting right before him taking an apple off his table and took a bite cockily. He would have agreed to the boy's action. McCoy had decided to tell Jim about the boy, JT after he finished the interview with the Tarsus Eight. They would be able to tell him more about JT and he would be able to relate his experience and keep Joanna strong.


	2. The Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will focus on Joanna and her psyche in order to set up the fic. I have included some jokes just for the fun of it. Spot them if you can. Thank you Starsinger for looking through the chapter. I really appreciate all the support. I have a long way to go to brush up my writing skills.
> 
> I don't own Star Trek. If not, I will have my own adventure on a starship.

**Chapter 2: The Heaven**

_"Eat this. Eat this, and you will never have to eat again." Her teacher passed her a pill. It was said that they would not feel hunger, feel pain again after taking this. They would become free and they would be able to ascend to heaven._

_"Heaven is supposed to be a really nice place," her friend, Emily commented._

_Before she knew it, her teachers, her classmates all fell. All of them except her ascended to heaven._

_"Come with us, Joanna! Take the pill. We will not end up like civilians of Tarsus IV waiting to be shot to death," her teacher grabbed her arms._

_"No, let me go! Let me go!" the ten-year old girl cried._

_"Joanna, Joanna!" A man voice was heard calling out for her in panic._

Her eyelid fluttered open and she sat up straight in fear, "I saw them again. I saw them taking pills and ascend to heaven."

Her father took her into his arms. "It's just a dream. You are safe with me now," McCoy whispered gently to her ears.

"Daddy! Is Heaven a nice place to go?" Joanna asked lying on her father's chest. "Do people go to heaven when they fell asleep? Why do people seem to be in pain before they go?"

McCoy looked at Joanna sadly while he rubbed the back of her head. He wondered how he should answer her.

"Will I go to heaven if I fall asleep?" Joanna asked. That was then McCoy realized that was the reason why Joanna slept as little as she could and she kept her lack of sleep from him.

"It's alright. Daddy is a doctor. Daddy won't let you ascend to heaven yet. Not now. Sleep, my little girl, I will stay here with you and ensure that you will still be here when you wake up," McCoy murmured as he gently lulled his girl to sleep.

"Does a Doctor stop people from ascending to heaven? Yeah right?" McCoy mocked at the irony of having a doctor when a doctor could not prevent his patient's death. Even as a doctor, life and death was not on his control. All he could do was to buy some time for his patients.

That night, he fell asleep with Joanna on her bed.

* * *

"Finish your breakfast, Jo," McCoy ordered. He frowned when he saw Joanna fiddling with her food as usual since she came back. "Daddy promises that you will have more food later. How about it? Finish your breakfast and I will take you out for a walk." McCoy offered. It was his shore leave that day. He would take her out for a breath of the fresh air. Acting Captain Spock allowed McCoy to telecommute due to his unique situation. If he was needed at the HQ, someone would come over to stay with Joanna. The bridge crew offered to help McCoy whenever they could.

* * *

The father and the daughter strolled on the beach barefooted by the seaside. It felt great when the wave swept over their feet washing away their stress. McCoy was in white tight shirt and canvas shorts while Joanna wore a pink flowery dress with a newly bought kitty ear hair band on her head which she insisted she wanted to buy as she claimed it resembled Kitty's (Spock's) ear.

McCoy watched his girl picking up sea shells while he felt all eyes on him. He glanced around and noticed that the ladies were looking at him. He looked like a hunk to the girls in his tight shirt revealing the lines of his abs. He turned back Joanna avoiding their glances. He wished he could show this sight to Jim. What would Jim say if he witnessed his "popularity" with the ladies? He grinned to himself turning back to Joanna who showed him the shells she had collected. They spent the whole afternoon on the beach.

McCoy bought an ice-cream for Joanna. It took some time for Joanna to process what was the cold cone-shaped dessert was. She looked at the dessert hesitantly before taking it eventually from McCoy. She paused for a moment, and finally licked it with McCoy's encouragement. It was sweet.

How long has it been since she last had an ice-cream? It was not that long but her arduous experience in Cerberus was evident. McCoy found her tearing up at the mere ice-cream which others would have think nothing about. People tend to take things for granted and only noticed it when they lost it.

"Dr. McCoy." McCoy's line of thought was broken by a lady's voice. Finally, someone was approaching him instead of eyeing him as though he was an eye-candy.

He looked up to the direction of the voice and saw a familiar pretty blonde sitting across them on the bench. She was in a plain dark blue casual shirt and short jeans skirt. It was Carol Marcus who was holding on to an ice-cream cone with the cream residue on the side of her mouth.

"Dr. Marcus!" he greeted her carrying Joanna on his shoulder and walked towards her.

"My daughter, Joanna, Joanna, meet Dr. Marcus," McCoy proceeded to introduce the girls. Carol was enjoying her ice-cream when she saw two of them across the distance.

"Dr. Marcus..." Joanna was trying to tell Carol something by pointing at her mouth. Carol blushed as she caught the hint instantly. She turned away fumbling for a tissue which McCoy offered one to her.

"Thank you," she said.

McCoy sat beside Carol with Joanna on his lap. The park was peaceful in the afternoon since the majority were at work. Only retirees, children or those who were off from work like them had the luxury to relax in the park.

"I heard that you applied for transfer to the Enterprise?" McCoy asked trying to start a conversation.

"Yeah. Commander Spock had already approved my application even though I thought he might reject it since our first meeting haven't been pleasant."

"Faking your identity to come onboard the ship? He is always by the book," McCoy commented.

"There is more to that, I feel. Well, that isn't important. How are you and Joanna, by the way?" Carol asked glancing at Joanna who was engrossed in her story book she pulled from her small back pack.

"Joanna will be staying with me for the time being. Her mother ran away four years ago so I mean the world to her."

"That's great. When I was her age, my father and I used to be quite close. We used to come here and he would always buy me an ice-cream. I wonder what changed him," Carol realised she got too carried away. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright. All of us have our own problems. Feel free to talk about it. I will lend you my ears," McCoy offered.

"Thanks," Carol smiled.

"Is your daddy here with us?" Joanna asked eagerly raising her head towards Carol catching her by surprise.

"No," she answered, "he is now faraway in heaven." Never did she expect that her words caused Joanna to freak out.

"Heaven is no good. It is painful. No, no…" Joanna started to cry. McCoy tried to calm her down. "It's alright, Jo. No one else will go to heaven." He took her into his arms. Carol watched them until the little girl finally calm down and fell asleep on her father's lap.

"I'm sorry," Carol apologised. She did not realise words that meant to help kids to understand where people go when they die was would cause an unexpected reaction from her.

* * *

McCoy pulled a blanket over Joanna and heaved a sigh of relief. It had been a long day. He was used to the long nights thanks to the shift work demanded from his profession. Carol sat on the side of her bed watching over the sleeping girl and ran her hand across her hair. A young girl like her had been through much more than she could imagine. She just realised how lucky she had been at her age.

"Don't worry. She will get better. It's just because of her experience during that period, she…" McCoy was looking for the right words to explain. Carol put her hand on his.

"It's ok. I understand. She had seen death at her age and it must have been traumatic." She looked away as she was reminded how Khan killed her father. That was traumatic to her and she had been seeing therapist once every two weeks to help her to get over it. The scar would remain no matter how much time had passed.

"If you'd like to, stay over tonight. I don't feel safe to let a pretty girl like you to go off on your own, especially when I'm unable to get away with Jo in her current condition. I can call one of the guys if you like."

"Don't trouble yourself. I will stay over."

"Dr. Marcus." Joanna tugged her hand. "You are a doctor like Daddy, aren't you? Please don't let people go to heaven!" she cried. Carol nodded brushing her hair from her eyes, gently lulling her to sleep. If it was like other times, she would have wanted to explain that her title was in fact different from her father and they were actually in different profession even though her father had also performed a "surgery" on weapons like torpedoes, which she was expert in, in fact 72 times almost crushing his arm to remove Khan's crews from the torpedoes by using the same method to open up all of them. It was said that Mr. Scott frowned in dismay when he saw the condition of his arm when they met up with him after beaming back to the Enterprise. If it had happened during the peaceful times, they would have laughed their heads off and teased him about it.

The fact was they were all similar. Carol picked up a set of pyjamas surprising McCoy.

"Do I look funny?" she asked. It was obviously too big for her but she would make do with it.

"No." McCoy wanted to say something but he stopped himself, stabilising himself by holding onto the back of the sofa. The pyjamas belonged to Jim who often slept over his apartment during their shore leave. Joanna loved the huge bear printed on Uncle Jim's pyjamas. He wore this to please Joanna back then. McCoy sighed.

"You know, this will remind Jo of Jim," he said quietly. Carol realised her blunder. She did not know this as this was the smallest pyjamas she could find in McCoy's closet.

"I'm so… so sorry," she proceeded to pick up her clothes to change back to be stopped by McCoy's words.

"I haven't been able to tell her about Uncle Jim when she asked me about him. I can't tell her he is in heaven and I can't stop him. Jo would get really worked up. Sometimes, I just don't know what to do," He sat down on the sofa covering his face with his palm in weariness.

"As a doctor, I'm unable to do anything to prevent people from dying," McCoy started to cry because of his inability to save Jim. Carol sat beside McCoy to cradle his head and allowed him to cry. They stayed this way until the dawn broke.


	3. The First Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Starsinger for the beta. I'm really grateful to you guys for helping me out and encouraging me to write. Pardon me for the writing. The Tarsus incident is referenced from Starsinger's 'A Long Road' fic. I really like the setting of it. As for Jocelyn, I took reference from the portrait of TOS on McCoy and Joanna (hapticmimesis . deviantart art / Joanna-McCoy-209550254) by hapticmimesis which is absolutely nicely drawn. If Joanna has brown hair, McCoy's black, I suppose Jocelyn should have brown hair.
> 
> I don't own Star Trek.

**Chapter 3: The First Contact**

"With this research, the food processing can progress to a new height," the lecture by Researcher, Dr. Thomas Leighton, ended with thunderous applause. Chief Science Officer and Acting Captain Spock and Dr. Carol Marcus stood up and joined in the applause with the crowd.

"I'm honoured to be able to attend your lecture on the research you had on the famine. That will certainly lower and eliminate the threat of famine crisis in time to come," Spock said shaking hands with the doctor at the end of the lecture.

Thomas Leighton smiled and added, "This is for the future of the federation so that history will not repeat itself." Carol could vaguely notice the doctor's pained expression when he said that. Half of the doctor's face was covered with a mask as it was said that half of his face was scarred. Dr. Thomas Leighton was one of the survivors from the infamous Tarsus IV where he witnessed the massacre of the colonists and he was one of the eight survivors who knew Governor Kodos' face. Carol could not believe that he was only fifteen back then.

Tarsus Eight were all enlisted in Starfleet, personally recruited by Admiral Archer with the late Admiral Pike's assistance to talk them into enlisting. They were the symbols of strength. They would do anything to ensure that history would not repeat itself. That was only touched the surface; the truth was Starfleet wanted them in their radar in order to protect them in case they were targeted because they were the only ones who could identify Kodos who was said to be alive.

"I understand that you would like to interview us on the events. We have already reported whatever we knew to the Starfleet thirteen years ago," Leighton replied politely to Spock's request. "I don't wish to talk about it again".

Thomas Leighton was the oldest of the survivors; naturally he would be able to comprehend the situation better than the rest. For the same reason, he did not agree to see Dr. McCoy for the interview. That was why Spock and Carol came to see him personally as McCoy could not get away with Joanna throwing tantrums as much as he wanted to attend the lecture. They were having dinner in one of the restaurants by the bay of San Francisco that was left untouched by the crash of the Vengeance. The reconstruction site of the destroyed areas could still be seen through the glass wall of the restaurant.

"Admiral Archer was bothered by the fact that all eight of you gathered in San Francisco at the same period of time few months ago and it was not even the memorial day of the event. We will like to take your statement with regards to that," Spock decided to go straight to the point since he would not budge.

"Can't we even meet up whenever we like, like all friends will do?" Thomas began to raise his voice. "Even though I don't think you have interviewed all of them, I'm sure no one would have told you why, am I right to say that?"

* * *

"How do you…?" Carol asked but was interrupted by Spock.

"Admiral Archer had all reason to believe that you have found the ninth survivor, nicknamed JT who was also your leader of your ragtag team as there was evidence that said that all of you have agreed to contact one another should any one of you found JT, and the Admiral had been watching all of you since then." Spock revealed Admiral Archer's true intention as he could not comprehend the given order to interview them initially for things that could be found in the archive with Admiral's Clearance level and questioned Archer about it before accepting the mission. After the incident with Admiral Marcus, Spock would not take any chance with questionable orders.

"You understand that all of you are under the protection order under Starfleet regulations, and it is only fair that the ninth to be protected due to the circumstances. We will not take any chances to overlook this. If you know the ninth, let us know his identity."

"And to be debarred from taking up command track in Starfleet," Leighton spoke up suddenly. He eyed Spock for a moment and started laughing sarcastically.

"Psychologically we are all unfit to be assigned to command track. That's why we ended up in Science or Engineering and anything else but not command, all for the sake to protect ourselves or rather you all in case we had a panic attack and got you all killed or even worse we are the ones who will kill you in order to survive. This is how Starfleet works." Carol stared at Thomas in confusion while Spock raised his eyebrow at his sudden comment. Realising his inappropriate reaction, he decided to leave the conversation as that.

"Sorry, I don't feel well today and I shall take my leave." Leighton stood up and waved for the waiter to settle the bill and left hurriedly.

* * *

"Doctor, are you ok?" Spock asked Carol who was obviously in a daze. Carol found herself feeling sorry for Thomas yet admired his strength to get to where he was now, to come up with to try and eliminate the threat of famine. His reaction though startled her for a moment; however, after hanging around with Joanna for some time, she could more or less relate their experience with her.

"I'm fine, Commander." She stood up and smiled. "I'm just surprised to hear the true objective behind the mission but we are not getting anywhere at this rate. I will inform Dr. McCoy about this so that he will ask the right questions when the remaining five see him. If we can't find out from Dr. Leighton and the other two, surely we can try our luck with the rest of them."

"No, we won't get anything from the rest. They were all loyal to their cause." Spock remarked folding his arms. Carol was baffled at his words.

"He gave us the hints. It was not something he can tell us directly. They were trying to protect the ninth indirectly in case someone hears us and put him in danger," Carol gasped. Of course, he was intelligent enough to figure this out.

"This ninth survivor really exists. He is in Starfleet and he is in the command division," he said quietly.

* * *

"That green-blooded hobgoblin!" McCoy exclaimed in annoyance. "I can't believe him to keep the true objective of the mission from us. He is becoming more and more like the other one of him."

"His intention is to help your daughter." Carol explained looking at Joanna's direction. Joanna was playing with her doll. She had not been talking much and not even therapy could help. McCoy could only watch over her.

"Why does this have to happen to Jo?" McCoy wondered. She had been bubbly before. It was his fault for not taking good care of her and left her alone when she needed him.

"I don't think you should reproach yourself, Leonard." Carol had become one of McCoy's close acquaintances since that night and he certainly did not mind her company. He needed someone to confide in and Carol happened to be more suitable than Uhura.

A buzz was heard. It was one of the Tarsus Eight who answered his call, and he was the youngest one of the eight, Kevin Riley.

"Lieutenant Riley?" Carol greeted the boy at the door who was six years younger than she. Chekov still held the record of the youngest crew at the age of eighteen though.

"I'm looking for Lieutenant Commander McCoy." The boy stuttered in nervousness.

"And we too!" Mr. Scott appeared behind the Riley playfully tickling him on his back. "We came to play with Joanna while you 'interrogate' my staff," Scotty joked while Riley rolled his eyes.

Kevin Riley was posted to Engineering, hence he was working under Scotty and they got along really well with Keenser included. He was accepted readily by the crews of Enterprise who welcomed a little brother. Scotty, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura heard Riley talking about his Tarsus experience and were supportive of him. In order to cheer him on, Scotty and Uhura accompanied him to McCoy's place.

"You know you are too open to talk about it. I heard of the risk you are taking for doing that from Mr. Spock while that man was trying to be discreet about it. I doubt we even have the full story," Scotty commented to Riley who merely nodded scratching his head while the Uhura set out to the kitchen to get ready for tea

"You are right. That guy just had his fun by pissing me off," McCoy muttered in disgust.

"Both of you are actually quite close, aren't you?" Uhura smiled as she placed a teapot of the dining table. The few of them sat down to have some tea while Carol fed Joanna some cookies Uhura had brought over which Scotty had noted.

"Yeah right." McCoy ruffled his hair. He could not deny that since his Vulcan commander had made a number of concessions for him due to his circumstances.

"Come with me to my study room, Lieutenant Riley. Uhura, take care of Jo for me. Carol and Mr. Scott, come in with me," Scotty and Uhura stole a glance at each other hearing how McCoy addressed Carol by her first name.

"He calls me Mr. Scott, calls him and you by your last name!" Scotty complained under his breath waving his hand and pointed at McCoy who was walking to his room with Riley and Carol following close behind to prove his point. Uhura nodded agreeing with him.

"Looks like someone may be in love." Scotty whispered to Uhura who giggled about it.

* * *

McCoy listened as Riley narrated his experience of Tarsus like a story as if it was detached from him unrelated to him. Even though he was not a psychiatrist, he understood that that was how much shock he had been through which he wanted to bury deep inside his heart even though he seemed normal to everybody.

"We had been enduring hunger wondering when and if we are going to die. It wasn't until some Vulcans appeared and rescued us. I know because of their pointed ears and the Vulcans who were with us ran up to them trusting that they weren't Kodos'men. I was in the hospital for three months and the eight of us headed separate ways. Tom was the last to be discharged due to the extent of his injuries," Riley bit his lips towards the end. Scotty placed his hand on Riley's shoulder in approval. He did well.

McCoy watched Riley closely. He picked up his PADD and started tapping.

"Do you know why you are being called in?" McCoy asked Riley carefully. Riley shook his head. He did not think much about it thinking that the brass may want some new insight from them after many years.

"The eight of you were seen together at San Francisco not long ago…" Riley's eyes widened at McCoy's words. He looked away and bit his lips. Carol handed him a glass of water to drink to calm him down. His hands were trembling and he raised the glass and gulped the water down. Placing the glass on the desk, he looked out of the window and took a deep breath.

"There are only eight of us. The ninth doesn't exist," Riley turned and looked into McCoy's eyes before adding, "any longer." McCoy could see his frustration, regret and resentment from his tears filled eyes which would deeply etch into his heart.

* * *

"As expected, we didn't get anything out of Lieutenant Riley either despite him being our best chance," McCoy commented as he was clearing his dining table after the three of them left.

"Don't worry about it. Commander Spock is hot on the heels of the ninth. He coined him 'The White King', referencing the chess piece. He has some idea on the identity of the ninth after speaking to Dr. Leighton. I think we should hear from him quite soon. Meanwhile, you should focus on helping Joanna to recover from the ordeal," Carol helped to clear Joanna's art tools which Kevin used to teach Joanna some drawings after putting her to bed.

"Look! She drew you!" Carol showed the drawing Joanna had drawn. Even though it looked nothing like him but yet it was precious. "And you as well." He added. Carol turned the drawing over and realized that it was a drawing of a family of three.

"Are you sure it is not your ex-wife?"

"She has brown hair. The woman she drew is blonde," Carol blushed as McCoy closed in to look at the picture from behind startling Carol who tripped and fell pulling his hand. Carol fell right on her butt with McCoy crouching over her. They were mesmerized by each other. McCoy found himself leaning in close to her to only find Carol suddenly kissing him on his lips.

A shadow loomed over them.


	4. The Twist of Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had written some facts about Sulu which I had referenced from the Starfleet Academy novel for the fun of it. If anybody had read the book where Sulu was featured, you will understand the "misunderstanding".
> 
> Thank you Starsinger for the beta. Thanks for correcting some of the facts which I was not aware of. Please guide me along!
> 
> As said, Star Trek is not mine.

**Chapter 4: The Twist of Fate**

An elderly man was seen kneeling down in front of the grave, feeling the engraving of the name of someone close who was currently resting underneath it. He could not believe it when he was told about it. He could not believe it either when he came to the wake and saw him lying peacefully in the coffin. It happened way too early.

Just how much had changed as a result of his and Nero's interference. The sense of guilt was overwhelming even though he was a half Vulcan. Now, the other him would never have the experience he had and the friendship which would define both of them in time to come. In a sense, he "lied" to himself.

When the name "Khan" was mentioned to him, he had a bad foreboding. Despite his vow of not revealing information which would potentially changed his destiny, he took the risk when his younger self asked him for advice. They had encountered Khan far too early than during his time. He wondered if he made the right choice to guide his younger self to give him some insight to Khan's weakness. After all, it was a gamble. He hoped his younger self would not have to make the same choice he did during his time. Indeed, his younger counterpart did what the owner of the chair would have done, inspired by his unorthodox methods.

The universe had its way to fix itself. Neither he nor his younger self had expected that their friend would be the one making the sacrifice his younger self would have done.

"Jim, I have been and always shall be your friend." He felt the engraving of the name one last time before standing up and looking at the sky. There was no Genesis Device to revive him and no katra to be entrusted to (likely Scotty) as Jim was, after all, a human. Just when they thought they found hope in Khan's blood regenerative properties, the hope was dashed when Jim's condition deteriorated.

He wondered how the future would run its course now. It was feared that the events in this universe scrambled itself up taking away his advantage of having the knowledge of the future which could alter its destiny.

* * *

He made his way out to the hover car where the helmsman of the Enterprise was waiting.

"Ambassador Spock," he greeted the elder Vulcan.

"Mr. Sulu, I am sorry to keep you waiting," Ambassador Spock nodded at Sulu who opened the door for him.

"It's my pleasure to be assigned to you during your voyage on Earth," Sulu stated. Other than being deployed as a helmsman of the Enterprise, Sulu was a competent bodyguard, for he was also a combat specialist specializing in fencing and had excellent martial arts skills. He was also trained in Ninjitsu. He was assigned to cover Uhura in secret with his Ninjutsu skills back in academy days for a secret mission of theirs where he defeated a fellow cadet who was trapping Uhura somewhere to protect her according to Uhura, by mistake, as he thought he was attacking her. Uhura did a facepalm when he offered to apologise to that cadet which she replied no need claiming that he deserved it. He did not understand back then. All he knew was that was the only blunder he made so far in his bodyguarding mission.

"Do you not want to pay your respects to your Captain?" Spock Prime asked Sulu since Jim had been, after all, the Captain he had served under.

"Sir, I'm currently on duty. It is not the right time to be doing something outside work rather than to focus on my mission on hand," Sulu replied politely.

Sulu was a by-the-book man. Once he had set himself a goal and he would go all the way to pursue it. As much as possible he would not let himself be distracted by anything else other than what he needed to do to reach the goal of he had set for himself. It was the same for his attitude towards his job. If he was to pay his respects to his late Captain, he would do that only when he was off duty.

"Now, we are heading to the HQ, sir," Sulu informed Ambassador after giving his instructions to the Computer as to their destination. The elder Vulcan nodded and looked out of the window as the hovercar sped off.

Ambassador Spock answered Admiral Archer's invitation to meet up to further their relationship with New Vulcan. He would be glad to meet up with him since his current schedule allowed. However, if it was to seek his advice on information to deal with future events, he was afraid he would not be able to help. He had already caused irreversible changes to the history, why would he want to cause further deviation of it to deprive people from their rightful fate?

Sulu could not help but marvel at the fact that he was playing different roles reporting to two of the same individual who came from different times, when he stole a glance at the reflection of the elder Vulcan who was deep in thought from the front mirror.

* * *

The two of them arrived at the temporary HQ of Starfleet at San Francisco. Their main HQ was still under reconstruction after the crashing of the Vengeance.

Ambassador Spock recognized someone from the crowd who was heading to their respective destinations to report. He noticed that he was grinning from ear-to-ear. He was obviously daydreaming.

"Dr. McCoy!" Ambassador Spock called out. The doctor stopped smiling as soon as he heard someone called him and turned around frantically to frown at the elder Vulcan in relief. He was afraid that the green-blooded hobgoblin would catch him daydreaming, and give him a lecture in his stoic Vulcan tone later.

"Dr. McCoy, it is pleasant to see you at the HQ." Sulu remarked. "We thought you were working from home."

"Well, Jo's condition had been improving under Carol's care. So I thought I might as well come here to make my report since Carol was with her," McCoy replied.

"Carol?" Ambassador Spock raised his eyebrow. "As in Carol Marcus?" He inquired.

McCoy blushed in embarrassment when he realized his blunder in the way he addressed his girlfriend. "Yes, I was referring to Dr. Carol Marcus," McCoy smiled a little.

"But it's nothing, Ambassador." He replied in sudden panic. He did not want the elder Vulcan to tease him in public. The younger version of him was a pain in the ass. He was willing to bet the elder version was even harder to handle, especially since he knew his future self and a secret he himself might not even know of. However, the Vulcan's reply came as a surprise.

"Give her the happiness she deserves," the Ambassador gave McCoy a pat on his back. Perhaps this was one of the consolations he had for interfering with the history. It did not occur to him that Dr. McCoy and Dr. Marcus could come together as a couple in a romantic way if it was in his time. Carol did not achieve her happiness despite her success in her career. Perhaps, she would be happy this time for getting involved with the "right" man in life. McCoy could try.

McCoy gaped with an 'O' formed on his mouth at Ambassador Spock who smiled and walked past him.

"What's up with him?" McCoy whispered to Sulu who was grinning at McCoy's reaction even though he himself did not understand what was going on. He shrugged and walk quickly after the elder Vulcan.

* * *

Ambassador Spock met up with his younger counterpart together with McCoy who was sulking in annoyance and Scotty after his meeting with Admiral Archer in his hotel room. Scotty was pacing around wondering if the world was going to end. There were two Spocks in the same room!

Ambassador Spock was concerned. He was concerned about the mission they were currently undertaking, on Tarsus IV. Sulu was finally off duty and was ordered to leave because the information was not for him and his rank to know at the moment.

"The Admiral asked me about the event on Tarsus IV which I will not reveal any information to him," Ambassador Spock began.

Spock wanted to speak up but the elder Vulcan continued, "How was the progress?" Ambassador Spock knew he should not have asked but he wanted to know the difference between the event in his and this world. Spock looked into the eyes of his elder version for a moment before he spoke up.

"Of the Tarsus Eight, we have interviewed six and we will be meeting the seventh one end of this week," Spock reported carefully. He excluded Dr. Leighton by the book. He knew of his elder self's vast knowledge and he probably knew the critical information which could even help him apprehend Governor Kodos if need be. That was only if he was willing to say. He might even know Kodos' face for all he knew.

"Yes, I know his face if that answered your question," the Ambassador answered before Spock could even ask. "What I'm curious about is the Tarsus Eight. I was talking about your record," Ambassador Spock chose his words carefully.

"There are eight survivors who saw that bastard's face. They are coined as the Tarsus Eight obviously," McCoy answered and took a glance at his watch. He had a date with Carol and Joanna and he hoped to end this meeting as soon as possible.

"Not nine?" Ambassador Spock took a gamble. If he wanted information, he should not hold back too much.

"We believe that the ninth exists and we are assigned to locate him. As we are speaking, he might be in danger despite the fact that the other eight wanted to protect him," Spock replied. "I do not think you asked us here to tell us what you know about it. In your time, are there nine survivors?"

"Yes. The whole lists nine names in the record which requires Admiral's Clearance for the access." Ambassador Spock responded. He got what he needed to know. The ninth probably erased his record. It was possible with his skills in hacking.

Scotty and McCoy looked at each other. The two Vulcans seemed to be trying to read one another's mind.

"Are you implying that the ninth erase his record? Why would he want to do that?" Scotty blurted out suddenly.

"Mr. Scott, you are right. There are traces of evidence to prove that someone hacked into the record to erase his existence. The only mistake was he did not erase his nickname, JT from the record of access eleven years ago. I had Mr. Chekov trace back to see if he can retrieve the record before that. If we can find the hacker, we will find the White King," Spock stood up after answering what the Ambassador wanted to know. He did not actually need the help of the Ambassador; surely they could do these themselves. If the Ambassador had done this before and accomplished the mission, they could too.

He had a tinge of fear. He was half Vulcan, he could feel. If his elder counterpart was that concerned about Tarsus IV, this event must have deeply affected him as well seeing that the elder Vulcan rubbed his temple.

Spock signaled his two Lieutenant Commanders to leave and he would leave the Ambassador to rest. Just before Spock closed the door, Ambassador Spock spoke up.

"In order to complete this mission, you and Dr. McCoy needed to stay strong. This is going to be the most emotionally compromising mission the crew of the Enterprise is taking," Spock stared at him for a moment and nodded.

Ambassador Spock could not bear to tell them the truth. They needed to go through this on their own and it was going to be harder than it was for him and Dr. McCoy back in his time.

The reason was they still had the leader of the Tarsus Nine with them back then whom they would do anything to protect him. Perhaps, it was another consolation for him for changing the history as JT in this universe was beyond the reach of anyone's vengeance.

The tiny bits of memory he received from the mind meld with the 'White King' in Delta Vega was still raw in his mind when the barrier was put back in place very quickly by the other party before he could uncover more. That tiny bit was just what he needed to know.

* * *

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Carol!" McCoy ran to the river bay when Joanna ran up quickly to him for a hug. "Have you been a good girl today?" McCoy asked ruffling his daughter's hair.

"Yes sir. Dr. Marcus can vouch for me," Joanna reported to her father in a military tone.

"She has been good," Carol walked towards them carrying Joanna's pink bag and putting it back on her. Joanna was comfortable with Carol's company and had been throwing fewer tantrums when her father needed to leave her for a while to work.

The three of them strolled down the river bay under the beautiful night sky in silence. McCoy wanted to speak but wondered what to talk about. He did not want to complain about his day or rat about his commander to spoil the mood. Not that it would.

Out of the blue, Joanna who took both McCoy's and Carol's hands walking in the middle made them hold their hands. McCoy and Carol looked at the little girl in astonishment before looking at each other and smiled awkwardly.

"Daddy will be happy if he is with Dr. Marcus and he will be happier if Dr. Marcus becomes my mommy," Joanna explained her rationale. McCoy was panicking while Carol was blushing.

Joanna was afraid to sleep alone. That night she could not sleep so she faked having fallen asleep. Because of that, she caught them in the act of kissing that night when she came out of the room to look for Daddy. She ended up creeping to see the kiss close-up but she was noticed by the couple before they could continue. She sighed in disappointment. Joanna was young but not that young. Unknown to McCoy, Uncle Jim taught her enough to know.

As they returned to the urban area, they were given a piece of flier. McCoy took a look at it. That gave him a really good idea for a date.

"Shall we go and see this play?" McCoy raised the flyer up to show Carol.

It was a pamphlet that was promoting a play adapted from William Shakespeare's Hamlet by a famous travelling trope, "Karidian Company". They would be having a performance at San Francisco.

 


	5. The Prelude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inspiration of Chekov's room came from Starfleet Academy novel where his room was almost turned into an aquarium and he was like the "fish" in the room swimming inside until his classmate collaborate with him and managed to help and get him out by hacking through the system.
> 
> Thank you Starsinger for the beta.
> 
> Star Trek is not mine.

**Chapter 5: The Prelude**

18 years old Ensign Pavel Andreievich Chekov was typing away in his sophisticated gadget equipped room with many screens surrounding him in his workstation of his personal quarters.

He was entrusted with a really important mission which required his secret hacking techniques by his Commander Spock. Chekov still felt guilty for not being able to save the mother of Commander Spock on time. He often had nightmares about it which no one ever knew about it. That was the reason why he felt especially honoured when Spock assigned him a task of the highest secrecy. He decided that he would not fail his commander. Should he succeed, they would be able to find the leader of the Tarsus Nine, JT.

"A cadet in the command field," it did not take Chekov much time to filter out unwanted names in the system. Basing on the fact that all the other eight had graduated around the same time he had, the ninth should have graduated. Spock chose to let him figure it out himself adding that, "To locate those who are ranked lieutenant and above if he needed to, and he had given him his Commander Access right and information granted by Admiral Archer."

"Thomas Leighton is tventy-eight, Lieutenant Riley is tventy, zat make him in betveen," Chekov mumbled as he keyed in the programming sequence.

"Gotcha… " Chekov hacked into a server which kept archive records of video feeds which was supposed to be destroyed thirteen years ago. All he needed was the general feature of how JT could have look like. Before that he needed to filter out the rest with enhanced imaging sequence to regress their current facial to their younger selves.

The images were rather low resolution but would do. Chekov gasped at the whipping and the torture feeds by Kodos' men. He saw someone lying on the other side in a pool of blood which the computer identified as Thomas Leighton who was really young back then. Half of his face was blown up being fired at point-blank in the feed. The one hung high up unconscious was Matthew Neferti. He must have suffered quite a number of fractures with his bones protruding in awkward places. That made the one who was screaming and spitting blood in defiance on the soldier who was whipping him JT, as the records said the three of them was captured towards the end of Kodos' reign.

"Computer, identify JT." Chekov commanded.

"No record found," the Computer replied. Seemed that JT had destroyed enough evidence for Computer not to identify him in conventional ways.

The fishes were swimming about in his personal aquarium glowing beautifully in the dark. Chekov sipped his coffee. Coffee perked him up in an unusual manner and he usually would be able to find some inspiration through that. He was wondering if he should just retrace the step. If JT was able to hack into the system without knowing, with Chekov's skills, he could do that too. Even his Captain could count on his skills when he roped him in for programming a cheat for Kobayashi Maru test, except that he was not caught.

"Generation of the list of Starfleet officers in command track is completed," Computer echoed.

"Filter those vho are blonde between tventy to tventy-eight, holding rank of lieutenant and abowe." Chokov commanded while jumping around energetically from the effect of the coffee.

"1 record found." Chekov jumped in front of the screen to have a look at the result. He pulled the screen right in front of his eyes. He shut his eyes tight and placed his screen back of the desk and rubbed his eyes repeatedly to see if he had read it wrongly. Chekov found his energy drained from his body and slumped back on his chair.

"Access denied to profile." was blinking on the screen which just means that JT was someone who had at least a rank above Commander Spock. That would also mean Chekov would have found his target as soon as he keyed in his hacking code. After which, he would have to verify the hacking trail.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

"Hurry up, Jo, you are going to be late for the therapy session!" McCoy shouted at his girl who was in her room to get ready.

"I'm coming…" Joanna walked towards her father slowly hugging her pink bag. She had qualms in meeting up with Dr. Dolly. Dr. Dolly was gentle, but she would force her to tell her story about her nightmare which Joanna was adamant not to talk about. She was scared.

"Come!" McCoy welcomed his daughter with open arms. Joanna ran into his arms.

"Be a good girl. I'll take you to Aunty Uhura and Uncle Riley tonight for drawing session," McCoy helped Joanna to fix her hair and tied two ponytails with his legendary steady hands and fix her favourite kitty ears, mainly to piss Spock off should she showed him her kitty ears, and even addressed him as that. McCoy grinned at the fact that Spock would not be able to show his annoyance in front of a young girl.

"Daddy must fight hard! Make Dr. Marcus very happy tonight and she will be happy to be my mommy!" McCoy was surprised at his daughter sudden words. How did she know he had a date with Carol that night? This girl was very bright indeed. He combed her hair neatly. "Daddy can sleep with Dr. Marcus and make me baby brothers and sisters," she continued nonchalantly. The comb on McCoy's dropped on the ground. He should have known very well who taught her that.

_"Damnit Jim! What did you teach my Jo?"_

The father and daughter held their hands and left their apartment.

* * *

"Dr. McCoy!" Scotty greeted McCoy on his way to HQ to chase the Admirals for approval on his proposal on the refitting of the Enterprise. He would take the chance to request upgrades for his beloved lady.

"Don't scare me. It's bad for my heart, dammit!" McCoy yelled at the fun-loving Scotty.

"I need a favour from you." Scotty went straight to the point. The fact was he had been waiting around the area for McCoy to show up. He knew he would be reporting to HQ today to submit the statement by the seventh member of the Tarsus Eight, Matthew Nerfeti. McCoy sighed.

"Please get Admiral Archer to approve this," Scotty sent his request to McCoy's PADD. "You know my relationship with the admiral had not been really… well… you see. Until I find his dog," Scotty looked away from McCoy's annoyed eyes trying to finish his sentence.

"Can't you get Commander Spock to approve it?" McCoy asked scratching his head.

"No, only an official Captain can approve this," Scotty replied in an instant. "So you know…" Scotty did not want to say further to upset McCoy. "Acting Captain will not do," McCoy did not show his grief this time, like he always did when Jim was mentioned.

"He will be promoted in no time," McCoy took a look at the spec Scotty had proposed and shook his head. It was not his area of expertise to understand. "You know that Jim had put up request to have the Commander promoted. Jim would not have anyone else but Spock as the next Captain of the Enterprise."

"No wonder there have not been any news of a new Captain being assigned to our ship," Scotty commented. "Did he know?"

"No. I was the one who sent in the request on Jim's behalf, but he should have been prepared," McCoy said as he tucked his PADD back into his briefcase.

Just as McCoy and Scotty were about to head in opposite directions, they heard someone shouting.

"Get back here!" It was Admiral Komack yelling at a new cadet who appeared to be annoyed, most likely by his nagging.

"What more do you want? I have cleared all the tests you had ordered. Can't I take a breather? I told you as soon I passed these tests, I will need a day off," The blonde cadet was likely to be around his late twenties.

"Do you know how much work I had to do to get you into the Starfleet for someone who is thirty years old like you?" Admiral Komack yelled at the blonde who flagged for a hovercab and drove off.

"There is actually someone who can do his job as well for pissing the admiral off right on his face," Scotty laughed.

"He's got to be a genius if Admiral Komack is willing to make an entry exception for him." McCoy added with a laugh.

"I heard that his last name was sealed away for some reason," Scotty highlighted from the rumours he heard about the cadet.

"You got to be kidding me! Who the hell will seal his last name?"

* * *

The same cadet Scotty and McCoy met had arrived at a grave with a forlorn face. He placed a bouquet of flowers in front of the grave and sighed, kneeling down to touch the engraving of the stone.

"I'm sorry for only been able to come here to see you now. I have finally passed all the entry tests and have become an official cadet of Starfleet Academy. Remember I said I'm unlike you who got good grades and obeyed all Frank's stupid orders and I could not be a Kirk in that house? I'm still unable to do it now, but I will make it someday. Soon, I will be able to live up to dad's expectation and be a Kirk in that house. Jimmy, you would be glad to see that right?" The cadet, George Samuel Kirk smiled as the wind blew softly through his blonde hair.

* * *

"Here!" McCoy waved at Carol who was in a black tube dress. Her hair tied up neatly in a ponytail. She looked mesmerizing tonight. McCoy was in a black suit, white shirt and red tie. He straightened his tie up and cleared his throat before approaching the beautiful lady.

"You look pretty today." McCoy swallowed his saliva in nervousness. He promised Joanna that he would make her happy tonight.

"You look great too, Leonard." Carol smiled brightly. They headed to the Theatre of San Francisco where the play, "Hamlet" by "Karidian Company" was held. The couple walked in silence. McCoy fidgeted and kept his eyes on Carol's hand. Carol felt McCoy's eyes on her and she beamed knowingly. She took his hand catching him by surprise before he could take hers.

"You are always one step ahead of me." McCoy complained in embarrassment.

"Because you always think too much." Carol laughed. He always spoke in metaphors instead of spelling out what he actually wanted to say directly. She actually liked him this way as he was cute. Most importantly, he made a great father to Joanna. It was something her late father could never be for her.

Carol spotted Thomas Leighton and his wife who came for the play and called out to them.

"Dr. Leighton, what a small world to be seeing you here. I thought you have left the Earth," Carol greeted the couple.

"I came here with my wife, Martha. Martha, meet Dr. Carol Marcus and…

"Dr. Leonard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer of USS Enterprise, Lieutenant Commander of Starfleet." McCoy offered his hands to Thomas Leighton who paused for a moment upon realizing who he was before taking his hands.

"Sorry, I was unable to accept your invitation for the interview due to personal reason. I hope you don't mind," Thomas said.

"It's okay. We respect your decision." McCoy replied.

The two couples happened to get seats together. "What a small world." Martha remarked in amazement.

Martha lay her head on her husband's shoulder as Thomas pulled her close. McCoy who sat beside Leighton was observing closely learning from him. He would not make the same mistake like with Jocelyn. Carol was chuckling at her boyfriend's determination to stop her from being ahead of him.

At the far end of the theatre, an elderly Vulcan was watching the stage closely. He would find out today whether one of the actors was the one he was looking for. Sulu, on duty, who sat beside him felt awkward in a suit. He glanced at his communicator and waiting for orders from Commander Spock who was on his way after alerting Admiral Archer to send reinforcements at the ambassador's request. It was a last minute request from him when he happened to pick up a flier featuring the play. It would take some time for the commander to get approval and he hoped there was nothing he could not handle.

The curtain was raised and the actors started appearing on the stage. The audiences were enjoying the famous play Shakespeare play's "Hamlet" and whispered comments on everything from from the costumes, the lighting, the actors and the act. The daughter of the founder of the "Karidian Company" was especially pretty.

"Not as pretty as Carol." McCoy mumbled to himself when he heard a guy at his back commented about the lady who just came on the stage. It was then he felt the tremor on his armrest when the next actor came on stage. He turned to the direction of the source of the tremor. Thomas Leighton was clenching the arms of the chair. His knuckle was turning white from it and he was shaking in McCoy would describe, rage.

_"God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another,"_ the voice rang from the stage.

Before McCoy could even reach for him to ask, there was a sudden blackout. In the chaos, McCoy could feel the heat blasted past him. A sharp sound of the firing of phaser was heard. He could feel warm liquid splattered over his face as he felt someone pulled him away from the line of fire very swiftly.

"Quiet," the person who pulled McCoy ordered.

"Sulu?" McCoy could barely make out his feature.

The light came back and people started to scream. McCoy turned to Carol's direction to see her gasping in fear covering her mouth in shock with Ambassador Spock helping her to keep her steady. The younger Spock gave out the orders and Starfleet personnel charged in and started evacuating the audience.

"Dr. McCoy, are you hurt anywhere?" Sulu asked in concern. McCoy was in shock with his face covered in blood. He slowly turned to his back to see a headless man. His head was vaporized. McCoy recalled the blood spluttering over his face when he heard sound of boiling and explosion of flesh.

"We are too late." Spock said in despondent.

It took McCoy some time to process that Dr. Thomas Leighton who sat right beside McCoy two minute ago had his head blown up and died and he was near the line of fire. His wife, Martha was crying over his body in despair.

McCoy's communicator beeped. His hands were trembling when he answered the call stuttering, "McCoy… speaking…"

His communicator dropped and toppled down the steps after listening to the call. His expression was unreadable.

"What's wrong, Dr. McCoy?" Sulu asked. Carol started to approach him slowly.

"My girl is poisoned and is in critical condition. She was now on the way to the hospital," McCoy answered quietly.


	6. Challenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are not that exciting. I wish I can write like many of you out there with great Star Trek fic. Right now I do what I can. Thank you everyone for the faves and reviews and bearing with me for my not-so-colourful-writing.
> 
> Thank you Starsinger for your beta. My grammar and vocab needs a lot of polishing.
> 
> Star Trek is not mine.

**Chapter 6: Challenge**

Hospital was a place McCoy was most familiar with. It was the very first workplace he was working in the moment he kick-started his career as a doctor. He saved countless lives and he had seen countless deaths. There were times that he loved his job. The sense of satisfaction from the gratitude from the family members of the patients he had saved was indescribable and of course there were times he was unable to save the dying patients and risked being beaten up by the patients' families.

He wondered why? As much as he wanted to save them, there were times that it was out of his control. Can a doctor control life and death? People still die eventually and no one could stop it. All he could do was to buy time. Buy time so that his patients could live a little while longer. There were times he felt helpless as he watched his patients weaken day-by-day and eventually the bed he was watching became empty. Reality hit him hard when he really understand how the family of the patients who died tried to threaten him and beat him up if he could not save them felt, when his best friend was the one who lay dying in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). McCoy could do nothing but watch as his best friend taken from him.

The cycle repeated when this time his daughter was the one who was dying and there was nothing he could do except to watch over her. He was trained to be a doctor and he was supposed to be able to help her. If so, why was he sitting there feeling helpless? His mind had been dizzy since the day his daughter was poisoned. It was the tenth day he had been keeping vigil by her bed side unkempt and unshaved as a mustache could be seen beneath the mask he was wearing. He would not leave her side.

Joanna was hooked up to a number of machines which kept track on her vitals and kept her alive. She was breathing softly through mask which was fogging whenever she breathed out. As a trained doctor, he knew very well that she was still in critical condition just from the medical readout of the machines. There was a chance that she would never wake up again. McCoy stared at his pale daughter. She looked so fragile and weak. He caressed his face and kissed her forehead as drop of tears fell on Joanna's face. He had failed her. McCoy recalled his pinky promise with Joanna promising he would make Carol happy and possibly make her her mommy. Even if he managed to do that, Joanna might not be there to see it.

Even so, he dared to hope, despite his commander's emphasis that there were no such things as miracles. Carol approached McCoy from behind, placing her hand on his shoulder as a support gesture. She had sent away Riley and Uhura who were asked to leave by McCoy when they came to visit Joanna. They were wearing germ resistant gowns and masks over their mouth to prevent infection of Joanna's compromised immune system. She gazed at Joanna's sleeping form solemnly. McCoy took her hand on his shoulder.

"Why?" He asked her. Carol could not answer. She was choking in her sobs. She wondered why a young girl like her was made to suffer so much. She was determined to see this through the end, together with McCoy.

* * *

The sound of the firing gun was heard in the firing ranges. The lieutenant from Engineering was firing away in rage.

Thomas Leighton was killed with his head blasted off from within, the other six members of the Tarsus Eight were being attacked one after another ranging from suffocation as she kept the gas stove running in her apartment when she fell asleep to car accident due to faulty brake to even a hiking accident as one of them fell to death in a volcano and another was shot by an arrow through his heart during an archery activity. Matthew was rammed to death by a car because he helped a kid to pick up a ball on a road. All except Leighton's death were classified as accidents. Leighton's death most likely served to mock Starfleet on their failure to keep the survivors safe despite keeping all of them under their radar.

He was the only one who escaped unscathed because Joanna took the poison for him.

He was the one who bought the milk which Joanna drank from. It was meant for him. The news released to the public was that he was the one poisoned and was left in coma.

He fired until the gun on his hand clicked indicating that he was out of bullets. He threw the gun to the ground in frustration.

"Wow, bull's eyes!" Sulu remarked at Riley's marksmanship. He had the making of a combat specialist in weapons required sharp shooting. Unfortunately, due to his identity as one of the members of Tarsus Eight, he was condemned to be stuck as an Engineer. Riley did not mind. The reason he joined Starfleet was he wanted to do his part in peacekeeping so that everyone would have a peaceful place to stay in no matter where they were, no matter how small his role was.

The result was contradictory. Instead of helping anyone, he was causing harm to others like Dr. McCoy and Joanna. He was thrown out by a pissed off McCoy in rage together with Uhura who was currently hiding somewhere in tears waiting for Commander Spock to calm her down. No one could blame McCoy on his harsh reaction upon seeing him as Joanna meant the world to him.

_"I will never forgive you and the rest of the Tarsus survivors! My girl ended up like this because of your existence. All of you should have died long ago and might as well stay dead!"_  echoed in his head. Riley could understand that he was not in his right mind when McCoy said that but he would be lying if he said the words did not hurt him. He curled himself up on the bench when Scotty handed him and Sulu an isotonic drink each. Sulu was assigned to guard Riley. Despite the fact that Riley had been announced that he was in a coma, it was better to be safe than sorry for he was the only one alive who knew Kodos' face.

"Because of the incidents, Starfleet was frantically searching for the ninth," Scotty commented taking a mouthful of liquid from the can. "Dr. McCoy called him a coward in his fit of anger. I hate to say that, I'm beginning to feel the same. Should that JT guy just show himself since things had come to this stage."

Riley shook his head in disagreement. "I should have kept myself hidden at the start so that I could take Kodos out in the open," he muttered in regret.

"You know you cannae blame yourself for things out of your control, laddie." Scotty stole a glance at Riley's bull's eyes and hit and frowned at his own hit with zero points at the other corner of the range, unseen unless one got closer. No wonder he was better off in Engineering. He was better at transwarping though.

"I just came from the hospital and Joanna is still in critical condition. Mr. Scott, do you understand, I should be the one lying in coma not Joanna! Do you know what it is like to watch somebody die on your behalf and you can't do anything about it?" Riley cried in frustration slamming his can of the table with the drink sizzling and flowing out from the can. He would not have expected that his confession caused Scotty who was usually patient with him snapped startling Sulu.

"Bloody hell! How do you think I don't know how it feels like to watch someone else die for me when I was the one who is supposed to go in to make the climb and die myself?" Scotty yelled and Riley noticed that his hands were shaking. "There are always other things to do rather than moping around blaming yourself for what had happened to Joanna. The least you can do is to stay alive and bring that bastard Kodos to justice!" Scotty left in a huff as soon as he finished lecturing his most junior staff.

Riley watched him left and wanted to go after him in panic. Sulu gave him a pat on his back. "You are not the only one. Mr. Scott had his own demons to face," he replied solemnly.

Tears fell down Scotty's cheek. He wiped them off as he walked out of the range. How could he forget how he watched someone sacrificing his own life when he was supposed to be the one going in as it was supposed to be his job. Scotty decided that he needed a drink to drown his sorrow.

* * *

"We had Anton Karidian in custody for questioning with regards to Thomas Leighton's death". Admiral Archer announced over in the meeting in the rebuilt Daystrom Conference Room. "In view that there was no evidence of him being involved, we will have to release him tonight," Admiral Johnathan Archer declared reluctantly.

Spock sat across the admiral raised his eyebrow in disagreement. There were sources which indicated that Karidian was the former Governor Kodos, especially since Ambassador Spock had already identified him. Even so, they were unable to apprehend him as the ambassador did not belong to their time. The circumstances and situation could have been different. His words could not stand. Spock had done his own research on Karidian which revealed no records of Karidian's existence prior to Kodos' supposed death. He raised his opinion to the brass hoping that Archer could reconsider his decision.

"How do you intend to prove that he is Governor Kodos when you were not involved during the Tarsus massacre, Commander?" Admiral Barrett questioned.

"Lieutenant Kevin Riley can, sir!" Spock answered right away. That sparked a discussion among the rest of the brass, Captains and First Officers who were kept in the dark of Riley's situation. Archer clasped his hands together and listened attentively. Kevin Riley survived the ordeal by accident in exchange for Dr. McCoy's daughter whose life was hanging by a thread. "Logically speaking, if Lieutenant Riley could prove that Karidian is Kodos, the whole situation will be rectified, sir."

Admiral Komack eyed the Vulcan commander closely before speaking up, "You understand that if word leaked out, Lieutenant Riley's life could be put at risk. Besides, we have already brought him in for questioning and showed him Karidian's photo. Lieutenant Riley didn't show any huge reaction to it. We believe he was too young back then to even remember how Governor Kodos looked like."

"Sir..."

Spock wanted to protest but was interrupted by Admiral Archer, "Lieutenant Riley was ruled out when comes to identifying Kodos. Our only hope lies in the ninth survivor nicknamed JT. The only video feeds we had showed that he was around the age of Thomas Leighton and Matthew Nerferti and because he was captured along with the two of them and had met Kodos in close proximity, he would remember as much as the two of them did. On top of that, he was the leader of the Tarsus 9 which kept them alive. Based on that we can deduce that the ninth is still alive somewhere but he is a cunning individual for erasing his existence from Starfleet record. That's why we roped you and the crew of the Enterprise in for assistance in tracking him down." Archer tapped his index fingers, "Lieutenant Riley might not be of help in identifying Kodos, he would be beneficial to you in identifying JT."

Spock stared at the admiral on his eyes for a moment and nodded finally in acceptance.

Just when the meeting was about to end, a Starfleet officer came rushing in and whispered to Admiral Archer's ears.

"Bring it on the holographic screen!" He ordered. The image of the flag used during Kodos' reign in Tarsus IV was broadcasted in the every Starfleet's communication devices in San Francisco. Only sound was transmitted which Archer ordered to trace the source of it immediately.

It appeared that some supporters of Governor Kodos were challenging Starfleet in exchange of the lives of the civilians living in San Francisco.

"To all Starfleet personnel, we have explosives fixed in hidden in stealth in eight most crowded areas of San Francisco and it will detonated in three hours. To make this fun, we have created a game. We believe that Starfleet is currently looking for the ninth as we are. Unfortunately, we are afraid that we are ahead of you. We have already located the White King's location and we will make an attempt to kill him with the ninth explosive the same time we destroy San Francisco. Fail to find him will result in your obliteration!"

Spock was fascinated by the fact that they coined the ninth with the same code name as he did used when he was discussing the Tarsus mission with his crew. Sulu, who was watching the feed with Riley at the range, shuddered at the similar words they used when he had threatened John Harrison. Scotty was opening his can of beer while he was watching it, Uhura was in the urban area to cool her head when she saw it, McCoy was grasping his daughter's hand while Carol was viewing it from her PADD, Chekov had his hands full when one of his aquariums burst due to his excitement when he made some progress destroying some of the parts of his computers which he was in the rush to recover his work for almost two days when he saw the feed on his PADD. He was so close but he got too excited.

With that the feed ended. Starfleet could not track the source of it as their system was hacked. The admiral started giving out orders after determining that they were trying to make an impression that they were superior to Starfleet after their uncontested victory in their attempt to kill the witnesses who knew Kodos' face.

Spock was running through all the possibilities of their motives and all he had established they wanted to divert their attention away from Anton Karidian while they erased the existence of the Tarsus Nine. Somehow he was glad that the ambassador, despite being unwilling to, had helped them out indirectly. He was able to figure it out thanks to his future self. If it was not for him, he would not have linked Anton Karidian to Governor Kodos. These events which had occurred would in fact leave further confirmation that Anton Karidian was indeed Governor Kodos.

At present, it was vital that they find the device which would stop the detonation as implied by the message from Kodos' men which they were confident that they would not find it on time. If they found the ninth, they would be able to save San Francisco. The device was hidden somewhere the ninth was in, and it was currently beeping quietly away in a corner of a room in an undisclosed location.


	7. Dismantlement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be honest, I have qualm in posting this chapter. There are so many better fics out there with better plot better writing while mine is just a simple plot. Nevertheless thank you for hanging on here with me, following, faving and reviewing my humble fic. Without you and your encouragement, I won't be able to get this far.
> 
> Thank you Starsinger for the beta once again.
> 
> Again, Star Trek is not mine.

**Chapter 7: Dismantlement**

Starfleet HQ was chaotic. After the announcement was broadcast to all of Starfleet, the admirals had been busy assembling personnel and giving out orders. Troops were deployed to search for the explosive devices that was said to be hidden in the most crowded areas in San Francisco. In order not to cause the public unnecessary stress, the city which, was just trying to recover from the wrath of Vengeance incident, Starfleet had ordered an emergency evacuation exercise on the city as a façade for the incident.

Spock managed to secure a temporary base in Starfleet Academy. For those three hours, either they found and detonated the eight explosive devices, found the ninth which could dismantle the other eight, or the city would fall. The crew of the Enterprise was assembled for this mission. As the Starfleet officers out there were searching for the eight explosives and evacuating the civilians, they would try to locate the remote to stop the detonation of the other eight. Time was not on their side. If only the ninth would surrender himself.

The senior crews of the Enterprise were busy with their tasks. Uhura was the command centre in charge in relaying all the information coming in and out from the base. Sulu and Riley were on the hunt with the troop for the eight explosive locations as Riley could not take it lying down if he was ordered to lie low. Lives were at stake and he would not be a coward.

Chekov was especially stressed. His computers were destroyed by the aquarium and he was still in the midst of recovering his data with Scotty and Carol by his side standing-by. Chekov would locate the ninth location and Scotty and Carol would dismantle the remote. That meant their hope laid on him.

Chekov panicked out of the blue as he dropped one of his many PADDs he had on hand.

"What's wrong, Laddie?" Scotty asked in concern to the youngest crew who was in cold sweat.

"Mr. Scott, I need your help," Chekov paused.

"Speak up, Laddie, we don't have time, either we find the eight bombs or cross our fingers for the ninth to show up with the device to save San Francisco," Scotty said impatiently.

"Come vith me!" He urged the Chief Engineer to follow him. Their action caught the eyes of the Weapon Specialist who was worried about her boyfriend.

"What's wrong, Dr Marcus?" Spock asked Carol who was in a daze. "Worried about Dr. McCoy?" Spock was cold but not that cold. He understood Carol's concern for McCoy when McCoy was said to have stayed by his daughter's side 24/7. Other than meal and toilet break, he did not leave her more than an inch. McCoy just came back from his shower being threatened by Carol with a hypo which would knock him out when the announcement was made by Kodos' supporter.

"Nothing sir!" she replied, curiously. She was aware that Chekov was tracking down the "White King" with his skills of hacking and he was awfully close when the accident occurred.

* * *

"What the hell?" Scotty muttered in amazement looking down at Chekov who showed him his work so far. They were running while Chekov was doing his job.

"I'm using Commander Spock's access account to open this profile vhich I can't." Chekov said while tapping away in his second PADD. "If it vasn't for the little accident I had at home, I could hawe got it. I'm narroving down to list of officers between tventy to tventy-eight who is blonde holding a rank of lieutenant and above from ze Command Division. This is the result I recovered so far." He showed him the result of one record found and then "Access denied to profile." blinking in red on screen.

Scotty eyed the young man with an opened mouth. Chekov was a genius except that he took too much time for repairs when he messed up. He could have nailed the ninth down two days ago. If he did, they would not be in a rush now. Chekov was working in another direction. Instead of looking for the "White King" he would look for the device which was linked to the other eight explosives around the city. That was where they would find him.

"And this is the place where I detect a hazardous device with my customized tricorder," Chekov said to the two guys standing outside the door. They were outside a dorm in Starfleet Academy. Chekov tried to contact McCoy for a door override code. McCoy did not want to give his precious Master access code away initially. For the sake of saving the people of San Francisco, he gave the code to him. Scotty nodded and was glad that McCoy was still rational enough after the episode with Uhura and Riley.

"I'm hacking in to the room now, Mr. Scott," Scotty watched Chekov get down to work, keying in the access code on the keypad while attaching wires to the mechanism in case the code did not work, someone approached them tapping on Scotty's shoulder from behind. The display lit in green with "access granted" for a moment before Scotty close without noticing as he was startled.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" he demanded. Scotty recognised the man as the cadet without the last name. To him, they really looked suspicious sitting in front of the door attaching some wires to the access pad when they could actually get in if there are access code or cards.

"Rule breaking." Scotty answered thinking that the young man might like the idea since he even dared to shout at an admiral and got away with it. "There are some treasures inside which you might be interested," the cadet really took the bait to his amaze. Scotty began to like this guy.

"Really? Let me help." He took out an access card and tapped on the PADD much to the duo surprise. The door was opened. Their jaws dropped.

"Go ahead!" The cadet said. Chekov and Scotty shot a look at one another. Is that the guy he was looking for? Chekov eyed the cadet suspiciously. His hair was blonde in colour, and he was currently in academy and that made him younger than thirty. He could be JT he was looking for. Scotty on the other hand, wondered if this was a trap.

"GO ahead." The cadet urged. Chekov looked at Scotty once more before gathering his tools and headed in the room. It was a dorm of two. It did not seem to be occupied.

"The two cadets who had been staying here had moved away due to promotion was what I was told. Promotion while being a cadet is possible."

"I was promoted to ensign while I was a cadet." Chekov stated excitedly.

"Laddie!" Scotty pointed at the wardrobe where they found something beeping away.

"Oh my god!" The three of them found the device. They only had three minutes left instead of the agreed three hours of which they should have one and a half hour at least. The trio glared at one another before turning to Scotty's direction with the cadet last to turn to Scotty.

"Fine, I will do it!" Scotty grunted in reluctance. If he failed, San Francisco would go down with them.

"Let me dismantle it." Another voice was heard. It was Carol who followed the two of them after informing Commander Spock.

Carol did the programming with ease with her expertise in advance weaponry. Nothing was difficult for her so far as long as people would leave her space and not pressure her. That was how she saved Dr. McCoy from the booby trap of the torpedoes on their very first mission together.

The trio watched her in awe. She was calm despite the urgency. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3…" The three guys held their breath and closed their eyes while waiting for the doom.

"Done!" Carol announced with the timer stopped at 3. At the same moment, the cadet turned his head over to the direction of the door and noticed an overloaded phaser aiming at their direction.

"Shit!" Without thinking he threw all three of them on the ground before he grabbed and threw the phaser out of the window far enough where it exploded.

Thankfully, the damage was minimal. It landed in a pond where it blew up.

"Holy shit!" Scotty exclaimed at the pond which was destroyed. He stole a glance at the cadet who glared at the pond in fury. If it was not for the cadet, they would all be dead.

* * *

"Here you go!" A paramedic passed Carol a bottle of water. They sat near the ambulance trying to recover from the shock from that incident with towels over them, which seemed funny in a sense when they were not actually in shock.

"I didn't expect this to be so easy," Scotty remarked with a laugh. "Good job! We saved San Francisco again."

"We helped as well," Riley and Sulu approached the three of them. They carried a box of dismantled explosive parts and threw it right in front of Scotty.

"Mr. Scott, your engineering officer is really impressive. We found one and found the rest fell in one swoop. Not even Starfleet specialists could keep up with him. On top of that, he could dismantle the explosives without batting an eye," Sulu commented patting Riley's shoulder. Riley did not say anything. His eyes looked cold and deadly. Riley sat in one corner looking away from the rest. He needed some moment alone.

"Who is he?" Sulu asking Scotty about the blonde guy who was giving his statement to the officer on the incident as he was the one who granted access to them which saved the people of San Francisco, indirectly if Riley did not manage to get to the other explosives in time.

"The guy without last name. George Samuel something. Ignore that something," Scotty said taking another gulp of water. "I want him in my Engineering division if he is into Engineering. I like his guts."

Chekov stood up and approached the guy, "Are you JT?" He asked cautiously despite in his heart he already had the answer. Before the cadet could say something, he was interrupted.

"He is not JT!" Riley who overheard it responded in irritation. "His eyes were wrong, Ensign Chekov!" Riley commented on the cadet's hazel eyes.

* * *

As it was, everything blew over without major incident. It was just like what was announced, just an evacuation scenario in public. Spock could not help but muse over Khan's words. He could be right.

_"You think you world is safe? It is an illusion. A comforting lie told to protect you."_

Spock heaved a sigh of relief. All credits were given to all his competent crews who knew what they were doing. All he did was coordinate the operations with Uhura especially supporting in relaying information to Lieutenant Riley who was obviously going overboard in risking his life. Uhura handed him a glass of water when the others were packing up and proceed to return to the HQ.

Spock put his hand over hers and took the water from Uhura, "I am sorry, Nyota. I had heard what Dr. McCoy said to cause you and Lieutenant Riley distress."

"It's ok, we understand what Leonard is going through," Uhura smiled kneeling in front of Spock on one knee to match his height as he was sitting. She was really glad that her boyfriend was concerned for her well-being despite his "unfeeling" nature. "We will help him through," she said firmly.

* * *

A certain person was trembling in disbelief. To think Starfleet could locate and dismantle all the explosives they had installed throughout the city in the span of duration less than the announced time.

"It can't be?" She was certain that they had managed to kill or incapacitate the Tarsus Eight. Not even the ninth who was dead without her lifting her finger could interfere. She let out a bitter laugh as she laid back in her chair. The eight explosives were placed in postal code in places within San Francisco which resonated with the survivors' birthdays while the last one was left in JT's dorm. Only the Tarsus survivors would have noticed. Seemed that even in death JT and his crew must get in her way. The woman smashed her PADD to the ground in anger breaking the screen.

* * *

McCoy glanced at his PADD umpteen times for the latest update of the incident. He just realized that the code he had given to Chekov for the access code to his dorm in the academy by mistake not the overriding code. He was tapping on refresh when an old man approached him from the back.

"You are indeed concerned after all, Dr. McCoy," the elder Vulcan commented. McCoy wheezed and faced Ambassador Spock who came to visit Joanna. He grabbed him by his collar immediately.

"You came from the future right? Tell me, will she live? Tell me!" McCoy demanded in desperation.

"I have interfered too much. So much that your destiny had been altered drastically," Ambassador Spock pushed his hands away. "I do not know. Vulcans do not lie." He answered slowly looking into his eyes before turning to the pale and weak Joanna.

"That being said. I will help. I will bring her back," the elder Vulcan offered. Since destiny had been changed, he could always take a gamble. If his younger self was here, he would have said he had become an irrational half Vulcan and possibly would not want to follow in his footsteps like he already had.


	8. Demon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm grateful to all the encouragement reviews and messages. I was really doubting myself feeling really insecure in sharing my fic. I hope I didn't mess up too much because of not-so-good writing. Thank you for bearing with me. I'm glad that you all like it so far.
> 
> Thank you Starsinger for the beta and advices.
> 
> Star Trek is not mine.

**Chapter 8: Demon**

A little girl was walking aimlessly in the dark. She felt suffocated. She was lost in the dark. No matter how loud she screamed, no one could hear her.

"Daddy! Where are you? Dr. Marcus! Miss Uhura! Uncle Riley! Uncle Jim!" She could not recall how many times that were.

She suddenly found herself choking after drinking from the milk Uncle Riley bought when Uncle Riley and Aunty Uhura were singing to her. She was losing consciousness; her body was in a violent seizure, she was vomiting and foaming at the mouth while Aunty Uhura and Uncle Riley were calling her name. Before she knew it, she found herself stuck here in the darkness. Is she going to heaven like the rest of her friends in Cerberus?

"Daddy!" She cried while strolling in the dark. She wondered how long she had been walking before she finally sank on her knees curling in on herself.

"Joanna?!" She heard someone called her name. Was she dreaming? There was no one here. She slowly started to look up and saw a being with pointed ears standing above her.

"Uncle Kitty?" She inquired. She thought so but Uncle Kitty does not have white hair right?

"Oh I am so glad that you are still here. Come home with me. Your daddy is waiting for you out there," he offered his hand to her. The little girl stared at him her tear stricken eyes for a moment and curled back to a fetal position.

"I'm in heaven. Can I still go back?" the girl asked in doubt. "Heaven is really scary. People who went to heaven can't go home anymore."

Ambassador Spock smiled gently kneeling down to her level and patted her head. "Of course, that is why I am here for you."

"Daddy says I can't go with a stranger. He said the bad guys out there will catch me and sell me off. You are not Uncle Kitty, so I can't go with you." The little girl replied naively.

Ambassador Spock rolled his eyes at her answer. As expected from the ever paranoid Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise. However, he did not have much time. He needed to get Joanna out of there before they were too late. He was putting her at risk for performing a mind-meld with her at her vulnerable state.

"Uncle Kitty is my friend. Uncle Kitty and your Daddy asked me to pick you up. I assure you that you will see your Daddy if you come with me," he offered her hand to her once more. The next request she put up caught the elder Vulcan unaware.

"Will I see Uncle Jim when I go back? I miss him," the little girl asked eagerly. Ambassador Spock became conscious that she had not been told of Jim's fate. He recalled that the little girl was very close to Jim, even at his time.

It was hard for him to tell her the truth as Vulcans do not lie. Even so, he could imply, "Uncle Jim has gone to faraway place."

"Will he buy souvenir for me?"

"Only if you are a good girl and come home with us," the elder Vulcan looked away. Did he just lie?

Joanna reached for Ambassador Spock. When their hands were about to meet, the ground collapsed taking Joanna along.

"Joanna!" the elder Vulcan tried to reach for her.

The ambassador was jerked awake. Dr. Boyce and his nurses were rushing to Joanna's side as Joanna had flat-lined. He was so close. The medical staff shoved him out of the room to see McCoy being restrained flat on the ground as he struggled to reach for his girl desperately. He was too emotionally compromised.

"No, don't take my girl from me!" he cried as one of the nurses administered a hypo on his neck effectively knocking the exhausted doctor out. Ambassador watched as the medical personnel rushed to save her life.

* * *

"Dr. McCoy?" Spock was calling to check with him on something when his line hit cut off as Joanna had flat-lined. Carol was on her way to McCoy.

Chekov and Scotty were watching Spock nervously. The room the ninth explosives were found in was his dorm during his academy days. Chekov had verified that the room code given to him was his. He stared at his PADD at the "Access denied to profile" message.

"Lieutenant, try to patch Dr. McCoy back online." Uhura nodded at her boyfriend's order even though they both knew is futile.

"What are you doing, laddie?" Scotty asked as Chekov sat on the floor and started to type. Spock took the PADD from him before he could key anything.

"I will do it," Spock tapped in a series of codes very quickly unlocking the profile they were waiting for. They were surprised that Mr. Spock had access to the profile. He gasped at the profile for a moment. They had suspected McCoy's roommate and he should have expected it. To think he was suspected to be JT. That was really easy. They should have figured it out from the initials alone. Who else could have troubles going after him all the time? The coincidences were rather unexpected. Even in death, he made the whole lot of them break rules.

"Commander?" Chekov called out. Uhura gazed worriedly at Spock who seemed to be in daze.

Spock came back to his senses quickly. He took a deep breath and handed Chekov the PADD.

"Do not update Starfleet about this unless you want to be taken off this mission. It's verified that Kevin Riley is the only witness left who can identify Kodos," Spock gave the order before leaving the room. He needed to speak to Lieutenant Riley to confirm JT's identity. It just hit him the reason why Riley had been putting up transfer requests to Enterprise, but was always rejected until he personally approved it.

Chekov had the same reaction as Spock when he first saw the profile followed by Scotty who was curious next. Chekov sat unmoving and Scotty just grabbed the PADD. The colour just drained off from his face.

"You got to be kidding me! Do you mean that he is the legendary JT, the leader of the Tarsus Nine, the White King?" He muttered in horror as he flipped the PADD to Uhura's direction to show her the display of the profile of James Tiberius Kirk on the PADD.

* * *

"Man, it is a long day!" Hikaru Sulu exclaimed to his fellow Lieutenant to lighten the mood. Riley had not spoken a word since he snapped at Chekov earlier. Sulu wondered what went on in the mind of the young man who had survived the horrible genocide thirteen years ago. It was the experience from that event that made him who he was now.

They were just debriefed by the brass on their great feat in dismantling the explosives. They were commended for their effort and bravery.

The two of them headed out to the main road when they brushed past the man who was arrested a few days ago for questioning with regards to Dr. Thomas Leighton's death, Anton Karidian. A Starfleet officer was escorting him out.

"Thank you for your cooperation!" the officer said to Karidian who shook his head.

"It's my pleasure to be of assistance as a good citizen," Anton Karidian responded shaking the officer's hand.

Kevin Riley stood frozen, much to Sulu's surprise. Riley could never forget the voice who was talking to the Starfleet officer. It was the very same voice that rang in that square that fateful day; the same voice which ordered a massacre of his family and friends; the same voice that changed his life. He grabbed the phaser on Sulu's belt swiftly and took aim at the owner of that voice.

"Die, Kodos!" Anton Karidian turned to Riley who was about to fire the phaser before someone dived in and knock Riley to the ground. The phaser fired and barely missed Anton Karidian who stared at the struggling Riley in confusion.

"Let me go! I have to kill this bastard! He is a monster, a mass murderer!" Riley cried in distress.

"Commander!" Sulu rushed to his Vulcan commander who was trying to keep the raving lieutenant from thrashing around in place and performed a nerve pinch on him while a number of security officers surrounded Anton Karidian with their phaser rifles aiming at him.

"Anton Karidian! You are under arrest in suspicion to be involved in the genocides of 4000 colonists on Tarsus IV thirteen years ago," Spock declared after handing the unconscious Riley to Sulu to hold him in place. Spock stared straight into the eyes of the former governor who gave himself up without resistance.

* * *

Carol watched McCoy who was sleeping in tears stroking his hair by his bedside in one of the rooms of the hospital. He was knocked out cold for hours. Dr. Boyce managed to restart Joanna's heart. Despite that, he had informed them to prepare for the worst. Should her heart stop again, they might not be able to save her.

The elder Vulcan came into McCoy's room softly.

"Ambassador," she greeted courteously, not really in the mood to talk.

"How was he?" the ambassador asked Carol in concern.

Carol shook her head. He had been calling for Joanna, "I don't know how I can help him." Carol started to cry at her helplessness.

"Joanna is a brave girl. She will survive this." The elder Vulcan said slowly taking a seat beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder, "I did a mind-meld with her so I know she's still there. Just give her time." Carol looked at the ambassador and nodded in tears.

"Jo, don't go! Don't leave Daddy! JO!" McCoy shot up in bed. In an instant, he turned to the elder Vulcan's direction and pulled his collar for the second time.

"What did you do to Jo? How's she? Tell me!" McCoy yelled in desperation.

"Out of danger," Dr. Boyce came in and replied for Ambassador Spock. He smiled. "It's a miracle, Dr. McCoy. Your little princess is awake."

Carol covered her mouth in bewilderment while the elder Vulcan pulled McCoy's hands off his collar and McCoy swore that he had given him a little smirk. He had no time to make a fuss over this. He needed to rush to Jo right away.

"Don't get so excited. She's still very weak," Dr. Boyce shouted at the back of the CMO of the Enterprise who scrambled for his little girl's room.

* * *

"What? My father was?" Lenore Karidian was pissed. She heard that her father, who was supposed to be released today, was arrested once again.

"It can't be," she muttered under her breath. The witnesses are all dead except the one who was lying in coma. "There is no way my father is a mass murderer! There must be a misunderstanding," she yelled at her servants in disbelief. She threw them out and sat in her room alone until one of the servants knocked on the door to update her something crucial which had led to his arrest.

"Miss. You won't believe this. They said Master Karidian was identified by one of the Tarsus Eight as the mass murderer of Tarsus IV Governor Kodos."

"Kevin Riley!" she realised in horror. He had woken up from his coma. As long as this guy was still alive, her father would not be safe. Opening up her drawer, she revealed a loaded hypo, "For father to be safe, he has to die." She mumbled and started to laugh maniacally. She decided would kill the last of the witnesses with her own hands.


	9. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really thankful for all the support and encouragement which motivates me to keep writing.
> 
> There are three OCs featured in this chapter which were referenced from Starsinger's 'A Long Road'. Thank you Starsinger for the beta and advices.
> 
> Star Trek is not mine.

**Chapter 9: Confession**

Sunlight shone through the window where Lieutenant Riley resided in San Francisco. As the only survivor and witness of the Tarsus Eight alive, he was being confined in his quarter until Anton Karidian was put on trial in three days time.

He stared out of the window deep in his own thoughts. Sulu was standing by the door of his room watching him closely. Being assigned to him, he could only watch over him. He did not know how he could cheer him up.

"Commander," Sulu greeted his Vulcan commander who came by to visit, but frowned when he saw Riley looking out at the window in daze. He spoke up as soon as he felt the Vulcan approaching him. As one of the survivors who tried his best to live on during the period of the nightmare, he was rather sensitive in detecting presence. Any little thing he sensed might be a threat.

"Commander, I'm pretty sure it is not time for me to stand trial yet. I have nothing to say to you. I took Mr. Sulu's phaser and attempted to kill Kodos. Sorry if I caused you any inconvenience. I will accept any punishment given," Riley said looking out at the window with his back facing the commander. That was not the Commander's purpose in coming. He had another agenda.

"As I disagree with you for taking action against the suspect, I have no right to criticize for this is what I would have done. Please bear in mind that there are Kodos' men out there who will come after you. Today, I came here for another purpose. I am here to inform you that we have found the ninth member of the Tarsus Nine. You are not obliged to say or do anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say or do may be used in evidence." The Commander said. "Am I right to say that the reason the eight of you assembled in San Francisco that day was to attend a memorial service?" Riley gasped. They finally found that out.

"Lieutenant Riley, I have found out that you were the one who send out the invitations to the other seven members," Spock showed the PADD revealing the message, "Come. I found JT."

"These are pictures all of you gathering in the same place. Admiral Archer sent agents to take of you. All of you have agreed to contact one another should any one of you found JT, and he had been watching you. It was unfortunate that we were still unable to stop the assassination attempts made on all of you. The location where all of you were seen together was here," Spock showed the photos of eight of them gathering at the entrance of a Chapel to Riley.

"It was the day when the wake of the late Captain of the USS Enterprise, James Tiberius Kirk was held," Sulu took a shuddering breath upon hearing the name of their late Captain mentioned. Spock was tapping and swiping harder and harder on the PADD.

"You had put up a number of transfer requests to the Enterprise. Despite your excellent credentials, you are denied of the transfer by our Captain. The reason was obviously personal. You are a threat. A threat to Captain James T. Kirk as you knew his secret and you have identified him as the ninth member of the Tarsus Nine who knew Kodos' face as well as the leader of your ragtag gang, JT also coined the term the White King," Spock declared raising his voice much to his ignorance but Sulu and Riley had noticed. Riley turned to face Spock to only notice that he was losing his composure.

"Commander." Sulu raised his hand motioning his commander to calm down.

"I am sorry. I was just proving a point. Lieutenant, the reason why you are in the Engineering was because psychologically, you are unfit to take up Command in Starfleet due to your experience in Tarsus IV right? Captain James T. Kirk was threatened by your presence as you could have taken him off of Command any time by revealing his identity," Spock regained his composure as he continued making his point.

Riley walked to a sofa and sank onto it. He had nothing to hide since Commander Spock had evidence against him, "It was never my intention to do that. It was his story to tell not mine," Sulu looked at his commander in perplexity.

"I merely wanted to meet him. Knowing that he was safe and he was happy was good enough for me. I'm glad that he became a Captain despite all the odds. The rest of us would never have made it to Command," Riley curled up to himself. "I would not be here without JT."

Spock looked at Riley with an unreadable expression. He got the answer he needed. He did not expect the 46.3% possibility of his confession to take place. That was also the reason why he headed to the Academy with the intention to head to McCoy's former dorm as he knew where the ninth explosive remote was located. Everything fit into place.

Spock stood up and picked up his stuff and left slowly. As he was about to exit the quarters, he turned back to Sulu who followed him to the door, "Take care of Lieutenant Riley. We will make sure justice is served for the victims who perished in the massacre of Tarsus IV as well as the other seven members of the Tarsus Eight who were assassinated." Spock order before he left giving him a pat on his shoulder.

Standing out at the courtyard Spock looked lost in his thought.

Just what else he did not know about his friend?

* * *

"Come, Jo, look at Daddy." McCoy urged his little girl the 8th time of the day. Ever since Joanna woke up from her coma, all she had been doing was staring out of the window blankly and unmoving. McCoy was desperate. He would do anything in exchange for his girl's health and happiness.

"Jo!" McCoy almost yelling at her when a hand was placed on his shoulder to stop him. It was his girlfriend, Carol.

"Leonard, go back home. I will take over from here." Carol Marcus offered. McCoy looked up to her in anxiety. She placed a finger on his chin and moved her index finger up to his upper lips.

"Get them shaved! Joanna wants to see a Daddy who is handsome and not unkempt. Right now, you are scaring her! I don't want to see you within the hospital for the next 4 hours, are we clear on that, Dr. McCoy?" Carol Marcus ordered her boyfriend who looked shocked. He did not realise that it had been eleven days since he last shaved despite remembering going for a bath earlier. He paused for a while before he finally reacted in response. He staggered while standing up from his chair. McCoy raised his hand to salute as he steadied himself. He could trust Joanna with Carol.

"Aye Madam!" he said before kissing her on her cheek which took Carol by surprise.

"This time, I'm one step ahead of you," He declared smiling in victory at Carol. He took a glance behind Carol at his daughter. He thought he saw Joanna react from his actions.

"Keep me posted if there is any change," McCoy requested. Carol beamed.

"You bet I will. Now, get going."

* * *

McCoy stretched upon stepping out of the hospital. The sunlight was bright and too blinding to his eyes. How long had it been since he left the hospital? Staying in the hospital for many nights consecutively was not new to him. The longest he had stayed was for that one month where he stood vigil for his best friend who gradually passed away from radiation poisoning because Khan's blood no longer worked. He did not know if he regretted bringing his friend back and only to lose him again. At least he got to say goodbye.

He noticed Ambassador Spock across the distance where he stood talking to someone who handed him a parcel with a solemn look. McCoy saw the ambassador, seemingly in grief, accept the parcel.

"I was requested to pass this to you by my nephew if that man was found and my nephew was rendered incapacitated," the man informed Ambassador Spock before he left for his other engagements.

McCoy walked briskly in their direction just as they finished their business. He had to thank the ambassador for what he did for Joanna and even coming to visit her more frequently than his busy Vulcan commander did.

"Ambassador Spock!" McCoy greeted feeling funny for calling him by the name of that stoic Vulcan.

"Oh! Dr. McCoy!" The ambassador who, seemingly crestfallen, composed himself very quickly and responded.

"Who were you talking to?" McCoy glanced at the direction the man who passed the ambassador something was heading to.

"Oh! It was an old acquaintance of mine even back in my time," the elder Vulcan replied deciding that McCoy need not know at the moment. He need not be emotionally compromised any further. "How is Joanna?" He changed the subject.

"Still not talking." McCoy sighed despite his belief that she would recover. It would take longer than he hoped, even including her previous experience in Cerberus. Ambassador Spock gave him a pat on his back.

"She is a very brave girl. I am quite proud of her," he complimented. McCoy's mood lightened a little thanks to his words. A part of him wished that his younger counterpart would learn from the ambassador to have some empathy to come here personally instead of pressing him to call him back.

"What's up with that parcel?" McCoy asked feeling curious.

"That's not for you to know," the elder Spock replied looking at the parcel just given to him. "I'll check out the contents tonight, and I might take the witness stand on the day of the trial."

"What trial?" McCoy was not in touch with the rest so he was not informed. He did not hear from Carol either.

"The mass murderer who inflicted damage on the Tarsus Nine will be put on trial and justice will be served," McCoy noticed that the Vulcan tightened his grasp on the parcel when he said that.

The ambassador felt old when he saw the parcel that was given to him. There was a thumbdrive in the parcel which he plugged in to his player and displayed on the projector. He knew what to expect when a video of the younger counterpart of his old friend came on screen.

"Ambassador." The young Captain James T. Kirk greeted him on screen. At the same time, someone came knocking. He switched off the projector and headed to the door and found the father of his younger counterpart, Ambassador Sarek who had just arrived with two other young Vulcans.

"We came to fulfil a request by the leader of the Tarsus Nine, JT," Sarek confided.

* * *

"Why can't I see my father?" the woman shrieked agitatedly.

"I'm sorry he is charged with a felony. Visitors are not allowed," a Starfleet officer stationed at the gate of the entrance raised his hand up to calm the lady down answering politely.

"My father did not do anything wrong. He was never at Tarsus IV. He would never kill all those colonists. This has to be a misunderstanding," Lenore Karidian tried to keep her cool and explained.

"I'm sorry, Miss." The officer shook his head.

"Damn it!" Lenore cursed and spat at the officer despite appearing elegant. She walked a certain distance before digging in her bag for something. She pulled out a hypo and stared at it, her hope, for a while.

"Father, you don't have to worry. I will save you," she muttered under her breath as she placed it back into her bag and strolled out of Starfleet premises. All this caught the eye of a cadet who observed Lenore walking out to flag a hovercab. His line of thought was cut by a yelling by Admiral Komack.

"Would you please hurry up? I need to move all this stuff to my office before my meeting!" he yelled. The cadet Sam rolled his eyes and followed after the grunting admiral.

"Coming, old man!"

"What did you say?" The elder man yelled back in annoyance.

Sam was concerned by the lady. He was sure that was a hypo. Why would she be holding one? He shrugged it off when the admiral yelled at him once more for being in daze.

Sam followed the Admiral Komack up to his office. They passed by Archer's office where he saw a man passing him a parcel in a solemn face. Archer furrowed his eyebrow seemingly confused as he looked down at the parcel. Sam recognised the man as his lawyer uncle.

"Hurry up, you slow poke!" Admiral Komack's voice echoed across the quiet corridor. Sam rolled his eyes once again. He was a cadet in Starfleet not his butler. He could almost mimic the famous Dr. McCoy known for being metaphoric. He looked him up of course which was why he got his hands on the access card of his dorm. Mainly because he wanted to find out more about his younger brother, but he ended up surrendering it to save San Francisco earlier.

That would be later. For now, he needed to move this box in his arms to Komack's office before anything else.

* * *

Carol was feeding Joanna with some water. Joanna still would not eat, but she would drink if not being pressured to.

"Good girl!" Carol put the spoon back to the cup and patted her head commending her effort to drink on her own rather than having an IV transferring all the nutrients to her frail body. Even if it was just water, it was still a progress. Joanna was not talking yet, but she would recover if given time and support from everybody.

She smiled and kissed Joanna by her forehead before heading out of the room to return the cup she borrowed.

A female doctor who was walking quickly brushed past her and knocked her by her shoulder. Carol dropped her cup.

"I'm sorry." The lady apologised and helped her to pick it up and returned to Carol quickly.

"It's ok," Carol replied taking a glance at the lady before standing up and heading to pass the cup back to the nurse. The lady was familiar. She tried to figure out who she was while walking before stopping and turning back running.

"Joanna!" She cried in her mind anxiously. That lady was the actress of the "Karidian Company", the daughter of the actor Anton Karidian who was being identified as Kodos, Lenore Karidian. She realised in horror that she must be behind the assassination of the rest of the witnesses. She must be here to finish off Joanna who was thought to be the last witness of the Tarsus Eight, Kevin Riley.


	10. Capture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This speaks of child abuse but I wouldn't have the heart to hurt the poor girl too much.
> 
> Thank you so much for the support fave, follow and reviews. Without your encouragement, I won't be able to get here.
> 
> Thank you Starsinger for the beta.
> 
> Star Trek is not mine!

**Chapter 10: Capture**

"Joanna!" Carol called out to the girl on bed startling the female, Lenore Karidian realised that she had been tricked and it was a trap. It was not Kevin Riley who was lying under the blanket.

Lenore pulled the little girl who cried and frantically struggled to get free. She shrieked in pain as the IV stuck in her was plucked out from her arms causing her unwanted agony. Lenore held a hypo on her neck taking Joanna along who was whimpering in pain as hostage.

"Let her go," Carol demanded taking a deep breath. She was a trained Starfleet officer who was trained to stay calm in all situations. The only time she failed was during the battle with Khan when her father, Admiral Marcus, was killed right in front of her. She would not let any harm come to Joanna.

"You tricked me!" Lenore cried in fury. She paced around looking out of the window for Starfleet officers who might be laying in ambush for her and she noticed that there were none. If that was the case, she had a chance.

"Bring Kevin Riley to me in exchange for this little girl's life."

"What will you do when you find him?"

"Get him out of the picture obviously. As long as he is alive, my father will not have peace of mind." Lenore cried tugging the struggling Joanna along.

"Help me, Mommy!" Joanna cried. Those was her very first words since she woke up. She was trying to reach for Carol but was pulled away by Lenore who had lost control. Joanna started to cry.

Out of the blue, Lenore pulled out a phaser and shot Carol on her knee cap. Carol fell on her knees and cried in pain. She was struggling to reach for Joanna who was being dragged away by Lenore leaving Carol in despair.

"Let Joanna go!" she cried desperately.

Lenore took the crying girl to the roof of the hospital.

"Don't cry. It will all be over with soon," She wiped off the tears from the little girl's blushing cheek. "After this, you will go to heaven and you will be free of pain." Lenore mumbled to the girl who was shaking her head.

"No! Not heaven. Heaven is painful!" the girl shook her head dreadfully.

* * *

"Are you alright?" Carol came to her senses to find herself on the arms of a guy's whom she thought she saw Jim in him. It was the cadet she, Scotty and Chekov met at the academy, George Samuel.

"Please save Joanna!" She begged of Sam. Sam looked at her at widened eyes. He knew something was wrong with the lady with the hypo so he checked with the guard who denied her entry to see her Father, Anton Karidian, and found his way to the hospital tracking her trail. Little did he expect her to kidnap a frightened little girl?

"Don't worry. I will do something about it. Can you stand, Dr. Marcus?" He asked in concern. He was relieved that Carol was just stunned on her knees.

"I think I can." Carol replied as she stood up with his help.

"Let's go," he said. Carol watched Sam take off and she thought she saw the late Captain once again running in front of her. This was not the time to think about it. She shook her head and ran after him. Saving Joanna was a priority. She would be letting Leonard down if anything happened to his girl when he was away.

As expected, they found the girls at the rooftop.

"Don't come near us. If not I will kill her!" Lenore Karidian threatened and readied the loaded hypo on Joanna's neck.

"Mommy, help me! I don't want to go to heaven. I'm scared," she trailed off; her voice hoarse. Carol's heart broke to see Joanna crying from so much fear. She wanted very much to cry with her.

"I'm sorry, my dear. Mommy is coming to get you," Carol choked out.

"Get Kevin Riley here and I will let her go," Lenore pointed the hypo at the pair. She moved backwards as Sam attempted to approach her.

"Don't you think you are a coward for threatening a little girl who can't fight back? Don't you feel ashamed?" Sam said in a commanding voice.

"What will your father think of you? He is suspected to have executed 4,000 colonists and he gave himself up without resistance. Compared to you, he is gutsier. Tell me how does it feel to plan and execute the seven witnesses and get away without being noticed. I thought you were smarter than that; even tracking the ninth before the crew of the Enterprise could. What is this now?" Carol was surprised that he knew quite a bit about them. She watched him in fear. He was obviously trying to provoke her.

Lenore was obviously affected by his words. She was smart. Her father always praised her. It was not like what he said.

_"My girl, Lenore is the smartest girl on Earth." Anton always complimented her whenever she finished reciting her script and showing him her new act. He would hug her closely, close to his heart._

"I got a feeling that the little girl is much braver than you," Sam glanced at the sobbing Joanna who stared at him in the eyes seemingly at recognition. She stopped sobbing and sniffed a little when Sam nodded at her.

"I'm sure you want to prove to your father that you are a brave girl right?" He raised his voice and gave Lenore a stern look. At the count of three I want you to drop your hypo and let the girl go."

"LET. THE. GIRL. GO!" Carol watched at Sam closely. Her fear had multiplied exponentially as the time ticked by and he was taking a risk for threatening someone who was not in the right mind to reason with them.

"ONE." He extended his index finger of the hand he hid on his back. "TWO." Sam extended his middle finger.

"Don't Mr. Samuel!" Carol held her breath while Joanna kept her eyes on Sam.

"I will save you, Jo," Uncle Jim's voice echoed in Joanna's mind.

"THREE! Simon says DUCK and run towards me!" Joanna responded in an instant ducking and breaking out of Lenore's grasp on her running in Sam's direction her as fast as her wobbly little feet could go while Lenore took aim with the phaser she removed from her belt on the little girl. Time slowed down as Joanna ran for her life. An incoming blast of light came from the opposite direction hit Lenore and knocking her phaser out of her hand before being stunned again by the second blast. Lenore hit heavily upon the ground in disbelief. A little girl actually defeated her as she watched Joanna running into Sam's open arms.

Riley retracted his phaser and approached the fallen Lenore who looked up at him in shock. He was Kevin Riley, her target. Riley pointed his phaser at her.

"Good shot, Mr. Riley!" Sulu shouted as he ran towards Lenore and cuffed her. Sulu sought permission to come to the hospital at Riley's desperate plea to see Joanna. Thanks to that request, he was the one to capture the culprit who hurt Joanna with his own hands.

"You are under arrest for kidnapping Joanna McCoy, together with a number of charges ranging from assassination of seven members of Tarsus Eight and attempted murder of Joanna McCoy to an act of terrorism. You are not obliged to say or do anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say or do may be used in evidence," Sulu declared holding her down as a number of Starfleet officers came charging in to take her in custody.

Commander Spock came into view and eyed Lenore with stern eyes with both his arms on his back.

"Ahaha! I was defeated by the White Queen. I should have known the White Queen; the most powerful piece would make his move to defend the King," Lenore laughed bitterly as she was yanked up and taken away.

"It is my responsibility to remind you that we do not have a King piece on the board. We cannot even start the game," Spock responded automatically. Spock mused at the fact that she referred him as the White Queen. It was true that he held the most power in this chess game while Lenore was actually the Black Queen.

He turned to Joanna who was tugging and crying on Sam's red uniform. He could almost hear Joanna say,  _"I miss you so much. Uncle Jim,"_  before losing consciousness on his arms. Carol and the nurses scrambled to get the girl back indoor for treatment.

On his half-human side, he felt a little sorry for heading this mission by the order of Admiral Archer and for scaring Joanna, the Vulcan half of him told him that this had to be done to end the whole game. They leaked word of Riley's condition which was actually Joanna's to the public and waited, lying in ambush for the appearance of the culprit who might attempt to finish what he or she had started. He was sure he was going to be hit with a complaint by the paranoid Chief Medical Officer later.

Come to think of it, the roof was the last place he saw his Captain. Was it illogical to think that Jim must have a hand in rescuing Joanna from the clutches of the evil queen with Cadet Sam as the medium? Spock shook his head denying the fact that he was thinking more and more like a human. Perhaps they did have a King piece after all.

"Checkmate!"

* * *

"Damn it! Are you out of your Vulcan mind to even put my girl in danger! YOU… YOU…" McCoy tried to catch his breath lashing out at his commander who sat on one of the chairs in the waiting area. He was exasperated. What if they failed and got his girl killed? What about her psyche? She might never recover after this event.

"How are you going to help me?" He pointed at the Vulcan with his trembling index finger. He could not believe it. One Spock tried to save his daughter while the other one tried to get her killed.

"Leonard, it is okay now. She is safe and sound back with us. She even started to talk," Carol tried to calm her boyfriend down. She was still limping a little from the effect of the stun.

"There was a 44.6% success rate in taking Lenore Karidian down, and I could not deny us this opportunity," Spock responded in purpose pissing the doctor off further. "And a 63.2% of getting Joanna killed."

"Damn it! Are you doing this in purpose to piss me off? I'm a doctor not a comedian!" McCoy attempted to hit the Vulcan with Sulu trying to stop him to getting near to the Commander.

"And you should be grateful to the cadet who turned the odds to our favour because Joanna is rational enough to listen to his orders," Spock reminded McCoy of the cadet who was talking and playing with Joanna which gave him time to come outside to kick his ass. Joanna actually responded to him and in turn saved her own life.

"Come to think of it, just who is he?" McCoy asked.

"George Samuel, first year cadet." Carol replied on Spock's behalf. McCoy looked at them in confusion. "Is Samuel his last name?" Sulu looked at Carol who shrugged.

"He is the legendary cadet with his last name sealed and it is perfectly logical for him to do that," Spock spoke up. "I just know what his last name is." He held up a wallet-sized photo of him as a teenager with a younger boy likely around the age of ten with bright blue eyes which Sam dropped at the rooftop. The group stared at Spock in confusion.

"Damn it man! I'm a doctor not a mind reader!" McCoy complained throwing his hands on the air giving up.


	11. Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know most of you are concerned about why are there no one who can figure out Sam's identity as Jim's elder brother. That was meant to be a running gag throughout this fic which would be fun. No matter how hard the characters except Spock try, they are unable to get it unless they were told directly. Isn't it frustrating for readers to know something so obvious which the characters in there who don't? :P
> 
> Thank you so much for the reviews and support. I'm truly honoured to receive them with my humbly written fic.
> 
> Here comes the important part of this fic: The trial which would end everything.
> 
> Thank you Starsinger for the beta and for the permission to use Uncle Richard Kirk who was mentioned in this chapter. I never knew that Uncle Richard is not a canon character from TOS until I was told. That was how powerful Starsinger is in using an OC in her fic.
> 
> Again, Star Trek is not mine.

**Chapter 11: Trial**

Joanna was finally asleep. Sam gently stroked her hair as he remembered a distant memory where he was trying to get his little brother, who was afraid, to sleep. While Joanna had her father and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise took care of her, he had no one but him to rely on.

Done with everything he could do, he stood up and stretched himself. He got to leave before Admiral Komack started calling and make a din of it. Like it or not, the admiral was his mentor, his sponsor even though he had enough money to get by for the rest of his life. It was thanks to the admiral that he could enroll in Starfleet and kept his last name a secret. Chaos, such as bullying, sabotage, and the hateful comparison syndrome would ensue should his last name was revealed to the public. He'd lived long enough to know what people were like. That was only until he could make a name for himself and have people acknowledge him as Sam.

"Thank you for everything you had done for my daughter. Thank you for saving her life," McCoy said, holding out his hand. There was no need for thanks for Sam would have owed him more if he was calculating enough. Sam took his hands readily.

"Not just me alone, Lieutenant Riley and Lieutenant Sulu had a part in it. I'm glad that they were willing to work with me listen to my suggestion even though I'm just a mere cadet and I was lucky Joanna knew the little game I used to play with my little brother." Sam said smiling sadly.

That reminded McCoy: Jim used to play 'Simon says' a lot with Joanna. He often used, "Simon says go to sleep" to get Joanna to go to bed obediently when he slept over and McCoy would often find the two of them sleeping soundly together by the time he returned from his shift. He still kept that pyjamas with big bear which Joanna loved to see Jim put on with him.

"Take good care of her. I will be back to visit her," Sam offered.

"Here! This is a photo of you and your little brother." McCoy handed him the photo Commander Spock had found. Sam looked shocked and he took the photo from him.

"Thanks," Sam kept it in his wallet. McCoy proceeded to see Sam out as Carol stayed beside the sleeping Joanna.

The two guys kept quiet on their way out. Sam stole a glance at the worn-out doctor before breaking his silence, "Aren't you curious?"

"Curious for?"

"My last name?" Sam said.

"No," McCoy paused for a moment before continuing, "Yes, but we gave up because we can't tell anything just from your photo alone. I'm sure that that Vulcan must be annoyed by our lack of insight when comes to this," he turned to Sam and laughed. McCoy felt good when he managed to piss Spock off. Sam laughed as well feeling relieved that his secret was kept safe and the crew certainly gave him the basic respect he needed beneath his sturdy face.

They had reached the walkway. Sam nodded to McCoy signaling him that he would be okay from here on and watched McCoy running back to his daughter. He took out his wallet and look at the photo once more.

"So Jimmy had a hand in keeping his little girl safe huh?" Sam could not help but feel that.

* * *

Admiral Komack was pacing around in the meeting room where only the admirals gathered for emergency meetings held by Admiral Archer. They had just finished watching a video personally delivered by the lawyer, Richard Kirk earlier in the day. The rest of the admirals either facepalmed or shook their head in dejection. The room felt so cold and gloomy.

Admiral Archer looked especially downcast even though he was relieved. He finally found the witness who saw the truth behind the death of one of his very own crew when he got his own ship during his younger days.

He had specially ordered the crews of the Enterprise to work on the case because they were not doing anything without a mission on hand when their ship in under major repair. He wondered how much the crew had found out. If they found out, would they leak it to the press? They would not be allowed on the case if there was a possibility of their emotions taking over their logic. He realized it must be really hard on the crew, especially Dr. McCoy. He was deep in thought when his line of thought was cut off by one of the admirals who hurled his accusation.

"Starfleet mandates that the survivors involved in Tarsus IV, who knows the face of Kodos, the executioner's face, are barred from Command Track when they enroll into Starfleet? What is this? We had one who managed to get into Command and even better we gave him a ship and made him a Captain. What if this is made known to the public? How will the public see us? I really wondered if you and Christopher actually knew about it and collaborated to guard the secret as both of you were in charge in talking the Tarsus Eight into joining Starfleet!"

Archer said nothing. He stood up and looked out from the glass panel. Komack answered on his behalf.

"Are you nuts? The beginning of the feeds already proved that Jonathan and Christopher didn't know anything about it. Christopher recruited the kid because he saw greatness in him. The kid had cleared all the suspicion you had against them," Komack explained to the uneasy admiral.

Archer could not be bothered. Captain James T. Kirk was well-known in breaking rules, even in his academy days. He and Dr. Leonard McCoy were getting into enough trouble, which was serious enough to expel them, but somehow they always managed to get away with it because they ended up "saving the world".

He shouldn't be surprised. He wondered if it was Jim going out looking for trouble or vice versa, trouble was the one after him. To think he was actually JT. He witnessed massacre on Tarsus IV, he survived and led the survivors as the leader of the Tarsus Nine keeping all of them alive. There were twenty-four out of the list of 4,000 Kodos had determined to die. He even managed to drop under their radar after the rescue by erasing his existence in Starfleet's records. That was how cunning he was, yet, if he was not, many more would have died and Earth might well have been destroyed well before Vengeance crashed into San Francisco because of their so-call mandates.

Archer smiled. He was proud of him and proud of Christopher who found the gem and polished it even though they were not aware of his identity. Somehow they ended up recruiting all nine who knew Kodos' face. They had actually completed the mission.

If he had someone to blame, he would blame it on Marcus. If only he realized what they had lost.

* * *

Two days later, a closed-door trial was held to prevent the media causing chaos to the public. All the personnel who were involved gradually took their seats. The senior officers who were in their grayish Starfleet uniforms were the Enterprise crew, who were arranged to sit in the back of the gallery. They were here to witness the end of Kodos and to provide support to their own Engineer, Kevin Riley, when he took the witness stand.

Some of the admirals came. Admiral Archer looked tired as he took the seat at the front row of the gallery.

Spock scanned around and saw his elder counterpart. Scotty wanted to wave at the stern looking elder Vulcan who did not noticed them, and took a seat at the witness area much to Spock's and the rest's dismay. They thought his words could not stand for being someone who came from another time.

Carol strolled in and took a seat beside Uhura. McCoy decided to stay with his girl in the hospital with Dr. Boyce yelling at him to work if he wanted to stay there the whole day. Instead of wasting his time, he might as well offer his services to the hospital. McCoy was currently helping out in an emergency surgery which involved fixing an antenna back on an Andorian who had gotten into a fight.

"Chapel happened to report back to the hospital so she will stay to take care of Joanna while I come for the trial," Carol informed the concerned Uhura. She had yet to visit Joanna after being thrown out by McCoy the other day. She would do so with Scotty and Chekov after that. Even Spock offered to accompany her. Uhura blushed at the thought. They noticed that Cadet Sam took a seat a distance away from the crew.

The accused, Anton Karidian, was brought inside. Surprisingly, he did not ask for a defense attorney to defend him on his behalf, as if he was ready to own up to what he did. A public defender was assigned to him as a procedure.

The Foreperson came up to read for the jury signaling the start of the trial.

It was Kevin Riley's turn to take the stand. He told his story from his life growing up in Tarsus IV to the massacre, being found by JT and Tom, hiding and running until they were found and rescued by the Vulcans. He had only met Kodos once at the square when he announced the list of the people who he decided to execute.

"I understand that you are only six that time. Tell me now, can you actually remember how Kodos looked like?" the defender questioned. "You may not even remember his face. Facial features may change as time goes by." He continued to grind on Riley who looked up at the gallery where the crew of the Enterprise were cheering him on by nodding and Scotty especially giving him a thumbs-up.

Thank goodness Riley was already advised how to tackle this question when Admiral Archer brought him in for questioning and how he actually recognized Kodos. "I may not be able to recognize him by his face but I can never forget his voice. The same voice that ordered the execution of my family and friends," Riley replied firmly looking at the defender into his eyes.

The counsel made Anton Karidian read the very same lines Kodos used when he made the announcement of the execution and generated a voiceprint which revealed a very close match between Anton Karidian and Kodos.

The judge determined that when a man's life is at stake, very close isn't good enough. Riley clenched his fist in frustration. If his words did not stand, the only way to prosecute this man was to make him plead guilty himself.

Spock observed that Ambassador Spock was seen to be talking to the prosecutor. Did he have an idea how to break out of this situation?

The prosecutor cleared his throat and made his next point.

"I will like to summon the next witness to the stand. The one who was known as the ninth who had seen Kodos' face, the leader of the survivors who kept them alive, known as JT…" The faces of the crews ashen, Uhura covered her mouth, Spock almost standing up, Scotty was rambling to Chekov incoherently, Sulu just sat here watching with Carol looking at all of them in bewilderment. Carol noticed that Sam frowned as well. "His real identity was revealed to be the late Captain of the USS Enterprise, James Tiberius Kirk. He will take the stand."

Everybody started talking as how can the dead Captain James T. Kirk take the stand as the witness? Carol's eyes widened in shock. A holographic image was shown on screen and Ambassador Sarek came in and stood at the witness stand shocking everyone except the admirals who knew what to expect especially concerning Spock who was watching his father closely with his furrowed eyebrow. Their late Captain appeared on the screen with his bright blue eyes catching the whole lot of them by surprise.


	12. Witness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The interesting thing about Star Trek community is everyone inspires one another to write and help one another out. I'm no exception. The thing about what I write was I'm often inspired when I read something I like and I will replay the scene in my mind and imagine putting them together in one story.
> 
> This chapter was based on the setting by Starsinger's 'A Long Road' and restfulsky5's 'Escape Artist' which was just completed recently. Both authors had given me a lot of support and encouragement when I'm really afraid to share what I had. There are many better fics out there. Who am I to even try writing one? I feel that this is the best chapter I had written for Similarities.
> 
> Thanks for hanging on with me. Three more chapters left to the end of the story.
> 
> I do not own Star Trek.

**Chapter 12: Witness**

The appearance of the late young Captain of the USS Enterprise on screen caused a massive uproar in the courtroom. Riley took a seat beside Ambassador Spock and was soon joined by the two Vulcans whom he recognised as the two whom were rescued by JT and had been sticking with him back then on Tarsus IV.

Spock's knuckles were white, gripping on the seat in front of him while he watched his father at the witness stand. His father was representing his Captain as a witness. Scotty and the rest were looking at one another, unable to react at the sudden turn of events. Carol looked really stunned. Does that mean JT had been always right under their noses, unnoticed?

She could not believe that a playboy she only known for a short time with a reputation of being involved in countless ambiguous relationship with different girls including her friend Chapel, was the leader of the ragtag team and had been through the horrific genocide, fighting for survival and keeping twenty-four kids alive. That explained why he was always taking immense risks others would have seen as reckless moves to keep the crew of the Enterprise safe, including sacrificing his own life for theirs.

"To the judge, counsel, admirals, and my crew of the Enterprise, if they are watching, if you are seeing this feed, it means that Kodos was arrested and I'm not around to take the stand. Either I'm dead, or I'm rendered incapacitated."

I have made this request to Ambassador Spock, whom I had requested my Uncle Richard Kirk to hand this to him should that happen. I'm going to be testifying as one of the Tarsus Nine, JT, and the leader of the whole group of kids that you considered so. It is time that I stop hiding," Jim narrated his experience back in Tarsus IV with everyone watching attentively."

Now how do I justify that I'm JT. Let me show you."

Jim proceeded to remove his leather jacket and his top and showed his back to the camera. He pulled out a pen knife and started peeling off the skin on his back. Jim grimaced at the pain which caused discomfort to some of the audiences were watching.

"I cannae believe this," Scotty commented in disgust. Chekov rushed out to most likely puke somewhere. Sulu clenched his fist to stay in control while the girls beside him covered their mouth horrified by what they saw. Spock just stood there unmoving watching the feed attentively while gripping the back of a seat. Riley just squeezed his eyes tight unable to watch further until Jim finished peeling off the skin of his back.

"And as it is, this is a pseudo skin which allowed me to hide my scar tissue if I needed to," Jim revealed his scarred back to the audience. There were numerous scars of different length which narrated the history of the whipping he received during Kodos' reign. They were created by a whip with flanges designed to inflict maximum amount of pain on the victims leaving scars without killing them. Jim was sweating and panting hard most likely from the infection from peeling off the skin without proper procedures.

"If you still have doubts of my identity as JT, you may check with Ambassador Sarek. He was the one who rescued me and had me shipped to Earth from Tarsus IV. He confronted me one year ago about it, and I owned up. "

The prosecutor asked Sarek to confirm what the person on screen saying was true.

"Yes, he is JT. I could never forget the piercing bright blue eyes and neither could the survivors," Sarek said quietly. Even Anton Karidian gasped at the figure on screen. It was him. He recognized his eyes.

"If my words still do not add weight to nail Kodos, I still have evidence to prove his identity. As I have pseudo skin on me, I believe he does too. The reason was, I had imprinted the evidence on his back. Back on Tarsus, when I was finally captured together with Tom and Matt, I was looking for some opening to escape. That was when I noticed a tool which was meant for scalding and imprinting, most likely the prisoner number. I don't know what got into me that I broke free of the restraints of Kodos' men grabbed the tool and pressed it right into his skin before I was recaptured and beaten to oblivion by Kodos and his men. If I'm right, the number is a numeral digit 9. It was seared on his right shoulder which would leave him the scar for life. Ask Bones, he would be able to prove Kodos' identity by peeling off his skin. Bones would know the proper medical procedures to do so. Bones, this is my last request to you, unveil Kodos' identity and free all of us from this never-ending nightmare. I know you can do that," Jim forced a smile on the camera with a pained expression as he ended his recording.

* * *

Dr. Leonard McCoy was confronted by a number of Starfleet security redshirts waiting to escort him to the courtroom after his operation with the difficult Andorian, who just would not stay down even though he was anesthetized.

McCoy did not like this. He had planned to tell stories to his girl after his little shift had ended, but he had never expected to be escorted and packed off to the courtroom where the trial was held.

"What the hell is going on?" He questioned while he packed his medical pack mainly for basic surgery with all eyes watching.

"You are requested at the witness stand to unveil the evidence Anton Karidian should have on him which would prove his identity as Kodos. One of the big sized officers read the order.

"Didn't you know not to disturb anyone who is preparing to propose marriage? You could ruin his date!" McCoy complained. "Can I call Commander Spock to ask for M'Benga to help instead? I'm sure he can do the job too."

"If you like to complain, log it to the admiral, Commander Spock has no right to refuse the order by Captain James Tiberius Kirk," the officer replied coolly. McCoy froze upon hearing Jim's name. He was confused. He believed that this was the trial against Kodos, the Executioner for his massacre of the colonists in Tarsus IV which Commander Spock heading the operations, what does it have to do with Jim who was dead?

"I will come with you." McCoy responded calmly. He had a bad feeling about it.

* * *

Everyone was waiting for the arrival of the Chief Medical Officer who would reveal the truth if Anton Karidian, the accused was Kodos, the Executioner playing live on the holographic screen.

McCoy gazed around upon arriving to the waiting room where Anton Karidian was held. His eyes landed on the man who was sitting calmly in a chair with six security personnel posted to him. He was the very same man who caused Thomas Leighton's uneasiness when he appeared on stage right before his unforeseen death.

Dr. McCoy's face appeared on the screen as he explained the procedure in peeling of a pseudo skin. "I'm going to warm his right shoulder where the spec said he might be hiding the scar tissue on. It is going to take around one hour before it peels off by itself. If the skin he had is indeed a pseudo skin, it will peel off itself. If not, no changes except for some redness on his skin will be seen due to the heat.

"Mr. Karidian, this will cause you some discomfort," Dr. McCoy told him before he proceeded to do his job. He used a huge wet towel dipped in side a pail of hot water; he carefully twisted it dry with his steady hands before putting it on the bare shoulder of Anton Karidian who did not show any reaction. It was as if he was confident that he was innocent.

Everyone felt really uneasy about it. What if the scar Jim mentioned did not exist? What if they had got the wrong person? Jim's effort could be wasted and the real Kodos would be alerted.

Uhura and Carol held hands for comfort. Chekov was mumbling he was sorry to the Keptin with Scotty helping him to sort out his emotions. Spock was still gripping the chair and Sulu went out of the room to get some fresh air.

Anton Karidian was quiet throughout the process. It was after forty minutes, he started talking. McCoy turned to the direction where the voice came from.

"He was a young and defiant boy with bright piercing blue eyes. I could never forget those eyes which would etch into my soul for life. It there's anyone who can reach out to me, even in the grave, it would be JT," he said in reflecting what had happened.

McCoy blinked in confusion. One moment, it was like he was confident that he would not be identified as Kodos, and in another moment, he sounded like he was going to own up.

"How does it feel to be able to free everyone from their nightmare?" Karidian asked McCoy. "JT entrusted you with his wish for the surviving victims to get rid of their nightmares."

McCoy walked up to Karidian to check on his shoulder. He gasped at the result. There was indeed a pseudo skin fixed on him and it was peeling off. McCoy carefully peeled the whole patch of skin off to reveal a scar shaped like a digit '9'.He stepped back one step to take a better look. He shook his head in disbelief. Everyone in the courtroom was stretching their necks out to see what was going on in the screen.

At this moment, Karidian stood up suddenly to face the camera on his back to show the shoulder revealing his scar.

"Your Honor, I have decided to plea to guilty as charged. Yes, I'm Anton Karidian, the owner of the Karidian Company. Before that, I used to reside in Tarsus IV as the governor. Yes, I was Kodos, the executioner who executed more than 4,000 colonists resided on the colony," he declared and turned to McCoy looking into his eyes, "You know what? I always knew that boy would become someone great someday, and he did not disappoint me. He became a Starfleet Captain. A pity that he made a decision which resulted in his early demise. I would wish I could see him in person," Karidian turned back to the camera when he finished not wanting to know how the doctor would react.

"I pled guilty. However, I had nothing to do with the recent attacks on the Tarsus survivors. Other than that, I accept the judgment of this court, Your Honour.

McCoy staggered backwards slowly and caught the railing at the back of the room trying to stablise himself. It took him time to process what was going on. JT was a Starfleet Captain. A Starfleet Captain who was no longer alive. He realized in horror on who JT truly was. He was the guy whom he accused as a coward, a coward who did not dare to come out of hiding and indirectly causing damage to his daughter both physically and psychologically. He put the blame on what had happened to Joanna on the Tarsus survivors. What had he done? What had he done to his best friend whom he never knew what kind of circumstances drove him to do what he did? His words back then must have hurt Lieutenant Riley greatly. He could not imagine if he had used the same words on his best friend. McCoy felt ashamed of himself.

With that, the court was adjourned. Kodos was banished and sentenced to life imprisonment in an undisclosed planet.

* * *

That night, McCoy came into Joanna's hospital room quietly. Joanna was sleeping soundly with her storybook on her. McCoy picked up the book and placed it on the side table. He kissed the forehead of his little girl and unknowingly his tears fell on the little girl's cheek waking the sleeping little girl up who blinked in confusion.

"Daddy, why are you crying?" the little girl asked placing her little palm on his face and wiped the tears of her father's face.

"Jo, I'm so sorry!" He apologized and hugged his little girl tightly. He did not know how to answer her. Joanna hugged back in response.

For now, they only have each other for comfort.


	13. Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter I had written. Again the setting on Tarsus IV was based on Starsinger's 'A Long Road' and some inspiration from restfulsky5's 'Escape Artist' to write this chapter. Some child abuse mentioned in this chapter. No child should be made to suffer like this. They are innocent and they should stay that way.
> 
> Again, thanks to my wonderful beta, Starsinger who continued to beta and gave me encouragement.
> 
> Star Trek is not mine.

**Chapter 13: Secret**

Sarek and Spock came to Jim's grave late at night. They stayed back after Riley and the two Vulcans left. Spock was unable accept that his father kept the fact that JT was actually Jim from him.

"It is supposed to be his story to tell when he was ready."

Spock looked down at the engraving of Jim's name on the stone, "How did you realise that the Captain was JT?"

"Remember the first time I saw him on the Enterprise when you almost choked him to death after he provoked you, he gave me a glare when he got on hold of himself after you released your grasp on him. That was the very same eyes staring at me when I rescued him from Kodos' clutches. He was covered with injuries and was burning from Staph due to an infection. No kid should be made to suffer like that. He was shipped back to Earth while I got to the rest of the kids, and I hadn't seen him since. The other kids, including the two who are with me, asked for him while they recuperated in the hospital. I attempted to search for JT but I was unable to locate him. I did not think I would meet the kid ever again until last year. He did not remember me. It was only when I confronted him at the academy after the Enterprise docked, he owned up upon knowing that I was the one who rescued him. It was unfortunate that things came to this when he sacrificed himself to save yours and the lives of his crew. He left word and requested that should Kodos be put on trial and he was not around to take the stand, I, who knew the truth, would represent him," Sarek explained. "I understand it had to have been hard for you and your colleagues to find out about it this way," Sarek gave his son a pat on and left him to his own thoughts.

* * *

A few months passed.

Lenore Karidian, who was arrested for the murders of the Tarsus Eight and instigation of terrorist attacks, was sentenced to life in a mental hospital. The remnant of Kodos' men, who collaborated with Lenore, were never found. Even so, the case was concluded and declared closed.

Joanna was discharged and had been going for therapy regularly. Her condition had been improving despite still being plagued by nightmares. Still, it was a great improvement. Joanna started to talk more and she had been eating, much to McCoy's relief. It was thanks to Cadet Sam's constant encouragement that she was a brave girl, and Joanna was motivated to prove it to him, to Uncle Sam. Sam had been visiting quite often despite his busy schedule. He had a way with kids. Joanna got closer to him more so than to her father. Carol teased McCoy for being jealous when he complained to her.

Sam took Joanna somewhere special with McCoy and Carol company.

It was a church where an orphanage resided. Joanna was looking around curiously at the playground with many kids running about, laughing and having fun swinging on the swing, and climbing and sliding down the slide.

Cerberus was the last place she had seen so many kids gathered in one place. Joanna went to a boarding school. When the famine hit them, they were put on limited food rations. Joanna often had her rations snatched from her by hungry kids and because of that she did not even get to eat and she had to sleep hungry on some days. Her last day had been extremely horrifying as she watched the kids dying around her because her teacher became so afraid that they would end up like Tarsus IV, they were given some pills which would free them from hunger after taking it. Joanna watched some kids grabbing her feet in extreme pain before they eventually became unmoving looking at her in their teary widened unseeing eyes. She dropped her given pills in fear.

She was hiding alone, curling up to herself in a closet until help arrived and her auntie, McCoy's sister, came to pick her up.

McCoy was watching over Joanna as she relived her memories at Cerberus. Tears fell heavily down her face as she squeezed her eyes tight. He was worried that she would break down. He placed his left hand on her shoulder while Carol held his other hand for support.

"You will never be forced to go through this experience ever again. Daddy will make sure of it," McCoy promised his crying daughter.

"Waaa…" Joanna started to wail loudly to the sky. McCoy's heart broke. Even Carol's eyes had turned red. Tears welled up in his eyes as he watched his daughter release all the cooped up feeling within her.

* * *

"How is your Starfleet training coming along?" a sister who was in fifties with chain spectacles wearing a white and grayish robe in charge of the orphanage asked.

"Other than constant nagging by old man Komack. I'd say no more than better, Sister Alice," Sam laughed casually laying his back against the wall. They were catching up for old times sake while they watched the kids at play. Sam stayed in the orphanage after he ran away from home. As he was seventeen at that time, he was overage to be accepted in the orphanage but Sister Alice had made an exception for him on the condition that he worked for his keep.

"Seems like the orphanage has been taking in more kids," Sam commented scanning around the areas for all the running kids.

"154 in total at the moment. It was thanks to your generous donation; we can expand our facilities and take in more homeless kids," Sister Alice said.

"No, that was from Jimmy who left me quite a sum of money after his passing for his service in Starfleet. It is enough, even if I don't work for the rest of my life. I'm quite aware he left some for the little girl, Joanna, who was with me for her education. He was quite close to her when he was alive," Sam reminded the Sister while staring in at a distance. His line of thought was cut off by Sister Alice.

"Since you are no longer staying with us, do you mind clearing your secret territory in the basement? I don't want any kid to stumble in your secret compartment and start hacking around and attract attention from Starfleet," Sam turned to her and nodded in acknowledgement. He knew very well what she meant.

"Ok! After that we have a date, ok?" He replied cheekily and being whacked by Sister Alice on his arm for being cheeky.

"Don't be naughty. I will let Aurelan know."

"No, please." Sam "cried".

* * *

Joanna's cries caught the attention of the playing kids who looked at the trios' direction.

One of the kids who looked Chinese around Joanna's age approached.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" the little girl asked Joanna in concern cradling her hands.

"No," Joanna sniffed and wiped her tears off.

"Do you want to play with us?" the little girl known as Shao Hong asked. Her group of friends gathered behind Shao Hong welcomed her to join them.

"Come on, it will be fun!" the noisiest boy of the group shouted.

"Go ahead, Jo!" McCoy urged and pushed her gently. "Daddy and Dr. Marcus will be waiting here." Joanna turned to look at McCoy in reservation. Carol smiled in reassurance.

"Go ahead." Carol encouraged. Joanna gave them a small smile and nodded. She rubbed her reddened eyes with her jacket sleeve and ran off with the children.

McCoy put his arms around Carol's shoulders as they watched Joanna at play feeling relieved that the worst was over. The pair smiled at each other in delight.

* * *

Sam approached his secret territory. Sister Alice had tidied it even though he had moved out. He looked around in the cozy bedroom.

It was supposed to be a storeroom which he transformed to his little bedroom where he would not be disturbed. He had also turned it into a little server room because he needed it.

He walked over to his former bed and sat down reminiscing about old times when he just settled into the orphanage, and he moved his hand on the mattress. He had sent a message to Jimmy to tell him that he was doing well here. He felt really sorry for leaving him alone because he could not take him with him.

Sam dropped out of school that same year he ran away from home. He took up three part-time jobs for his keep. Even though the orphanage did not ask him for money, he would still make donations every month to repay them for their kindness even if it was little. This lasted for one year.

Thunder roared and lightning lit through the night sky on one of the nights he came running back to the orphanage from his part-time job. Despite having an umbrella given by Sister Alice, he was drenched. He saw a small figure curled up at the door in a distance shivering in the rain. It was a boy. He wondered if he had snuck out of the orphanage and was locked out. Sam got closer as he kept his umbrella and pulled out the key. He asked if he was alright and he would open the door for both of them. The boy looked so thin and frail for his own good. Sound of teeth grinding could be heard even in the rain. He was freezing, Sam realized in horror. He needed to get him inside.

"Come on! Let me carry you in." He carried the boy on piggyback and realized how light he was. It was too dark to make out whether if he was in pain. He brought the boy to his room and put him onto his bed and switch on the light. He took a glance of the kid and gasped. The kid was in a mess. He was scruffy; his hair was long, and, considering that he was a boy and he was trembling. He was in a hospital gown he realized. Was he very sick? Did he run away from the hospital? It was too late at night and he tried not to bother the Sisters who were asleep especially in weather as bad as this. He would call for the ambulance the next morning crossing his fingers that nothing would go wrong.

Sam took him to the bathroom to warm him up. The boy was shivering and Sam felt his forehead and he was not surprised that he was running a fever from sitting in the rain when he was already that sick. He removed his gown and noticed the bandages on his back and almost fell to his knees when he tried to change the bandages after giving him a sonic shower and drying him up. His back were covered with quite a number of fresh wounds long and short. It was like he had been abused and whipped countless times. Sam felt really pissed. He wondered if there was anyone more abusive than his step-father.

Sam helped him put on a new set of clothes. They were too big for him but would do. The boy had not utter a single word since he came in. Sam combed his hair when the boy grabbed his hands.

"Sam..." The boy croaked out. Sam found the voice familiar yet it was different. He could not point out who he was at that point of time.

"Jimmy?" Sam took a look closer at the sick boy when he grabbed his hands tightly and locked eyes with him. His blue eyes which was nothing like the vibrant blue eyes he last saw at home. They were dull and cold.

"Oh my god!" Sam was running through the possibilities on his head on what happened to Jim kneeling in front of him caressing his cheek. Jim had lost too much weight and was reduced to a bag of bones. On top of that the wounds at his back were gross. Did Frank do this to him? He felt like murdering that drunk and abusive man in that instant. He was inhumane.

"No!" Jim shook his head frantically. "It was… Ko…dos…" Jim managed to utter out the name before he lost his consciousness on Sam who caught him in time.

Sam was battling to help Jim through his fever the whole night. He needed to know what happened to his little brother.

By the time, Jim came to Sam was dozing off holding a towel on his hands. Sam was aroused by the little movement made by Jim.

"Jimmy!" He exclaimed. "Are you feeling better?" Sam felt for his temperature. It was still going on and off. He took off planning to call for an ambulance but was stopped by the tug on his hand.

"Jimmy, I need to get you to the hospital. You are badly hurt and having a Staph infection, do you understand?" Sam attempted to shrug off his grip but Jim would not let go.

"No, I don't want to go to the hospital," Jim shook his head violently in tears.

"Jimmy!" Sam sat on his bed and grabbed him by his shoulder. "You understand what is going on right now? You are sick and you need treatment, if not you will die!"

"NO! I rather die than be locked up." Jim raised his voice and started coughing uncontrollably. He even coughed out blood.

"JIMMY!" Even though Sam had seen a lot of fights and people died on the road at times, Sam never felt scared until the one lying in front of him dying was his own little brother. He really had no choice. Sam needed help he could not do this alone. He could not let Jim die on his watch.

Thank goodness, there was a doctor who grew up in the orphanage came back for a visit. Sam happened to ask Sister Alice whom he most trusted for help and she referred Dr. Taylor.

Dr. Taylor gave a convulsing Jim a hypo to sedate him. She advised Sam to take him to the hospital.

"No, I can't! Jimmy wouldn't let me. Please save him," Sam knelt down to beg of her. "I will take responsibility if he doesn't make it so please."

The next few days were critical. Dr. Taylor took leave to stay over and help the Kirk brothers. She could not say no to fellow orphans when they needed help. Jim's temperature eventually returned to normal but it would take time for him to recover his strength. Dr. Taylor was the one who fixed a pseudo skin on Jim at Jim's request.

For the next few months, Sam nursed Jim back to health. He witnessed all sorts of horror and nightmares Jim was having during that period. He checked up Kodos meanwhile and learned about what had happened in Tarsus IV. It appeared that Jim was sent to Tarsus IV after crashing their father's '65 Chevy Corvette into a quarry when he called his drunk mother who knew nothing about the massacre on Tarsus IV. He slammed his phone in fury.

He read from the news that Starfleet was searching for the kid who was suspected to be known as JT, who was missing from the hospital. He watched the interview feeds of the survivors on his computer at night when Jim was asleep. His heart lurched when he saw kids breaking down from the stress of the interviews. Rumours were flying around and there were possibilities of Kodos being alive and the public questioned if Starfleet would protect the kids till Kodos was identified and arrested. Sam decided that he would not put Jim in the same ordeal as those kids. He would protect Jim in his own way.

For this reason, he set up networks and servers. He had studied about hacking and many other skills which would help him survive in society. He would take a risk.

One night, he hacked into Starfleet's secure network and deleted all records relating to JT. By erasing his existence from Starfleet records, not only was Starfleet not able to find him, even Kodos' minions would not be able to hunt him down.

As someone who was cautious, he erased any possible traces he had left but did not expect to be found out by a Russian whiz kid twelve years later.


	14. Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! One more chapter to go till the end of Similarities! The inspiration and some of the lines for this chapter came from Penn Flinn's 'It Goes On'. Yes, I'm still quite sad reading that story. My story won't even form without it. I'm quite thankful of the great stories written in this community in turn granting me the inspiration.
> 
> Thank you Starsinger once again for the beta. Thanks for the encouragement.
> 
> Star Trek does not belong to me.

**Chapter 14: Mission**

"Oh my god! Are you out of your Vulcan mind to accept the five-year mission? It's five years in space! Five years of god-knows-what-is-going-to-happen-in-space," Lieutenant Commander, Leonard McCoy was yelling at his soon-to-be Captain after their meeting with Admiral Archer. As soon as the Enterprise was rechristened, they were ready to fly.

Scotty who was usually chatty followed quietly as this was not the first time he tried to interfere and got badly burned by the emotional doctor and the stoic captain. It was hard to be stuck between them. He'd really rather not takes side. Soon, he would have company as Sulu and Chekov would be promoted one rank up each on their performance in the Wrath of Vengeance. Sulu would be the next in line in becoming First Officer whether he chose to be onboard Enterprise or posted elsewhere. What Scotty did not know that that man was a lot smarter than he seemed to be. He would be able to evade them.

_"Remind me not to piss you off, Mr Sulu,"_  Was what McCoy had told Scotty.

Spock did not respond to him walking quickly as an exasperated McCoy could keep up while trying to instill his words into his mind.

"If this is the case, you leave me no choice but to jump ship, Commander," McCoy said finally. He could not afford to leave Joanna at this juncture. Joanna was finally recovering from the ordeal and McCoy wished to stay with her and also to watch her grow up to a confident teen.

"Hey! Are you serious? The Enterprise needs you. What about Dr. Marcus? Have you spoken to her?" Scotty finally spoke up.

"Starfleet has a pool of competent doctors. It does not have to be me. M'Benga can do the job," McCoy replied in a serious tone when Scotty realised that he was not kidding, "I will inform Carol myself but I will not stop her from joining ya'll on this mission. My mind is made up. I will send you a formal request, future Captain," the doctor finished and walked off in a huff. Scotty watched Dr. McCoy left and turned back to his Commander.

"Are you going to say anything?" Scotty asked.

The only reply he received was, "It is what he would have done." Spock walked in the opposite direction leaving the bewildered Chief Engineer alone, enlightened by the same words he heard about one year ago.

"What have you done again, Jim?" Scotty wondered.

* * *

McCoy returned to his quarter. Joanna was not at home as Carol had taken her out to play. McCoy leaned on the back of the door heaving a sigh. He knew he was being unreasonable as it was their job as explorers to explore strange new world, to boldly go where no one has gone before. He was definitely sure that Jim would have accepted this mission and came to bug him excitedly as soon as he received the order. He had wanted so much to go on adventures despite McCoy's reluctance, fearing that they would blow up in space. Five years for god sake. How was he able to survive this?

_"You both have so many stories to live out there..._

_...And take care of each other."_ echoed in his mind. He slid down the door he was leaning on as he shut it with a click. He knew that by asking for a transfer he would be letting Jim down. He would be breaking his promise to take care of that hobgoblin and neither the hobgoblin could fulfill his promise to "take care" of him. It was an extremely difficult decision to make and he had chosen to break his promise as Joanna needed her daddy.

"I'm sorry, Jim."

McCoy dropped his mask as a man and broke down in tears once more.

* * *

There were many requests of transfer in and out during the window period to be expected as they prepared for a mission of a prolonged duration. Many those who did not have family to worry about remained on the ship and those young, single, unburdened and newly graduated applied to join the mission while the rest dropped out of the mission.

What McCoy should have expected, Carol was still one step ahead of him. She submitted her request for transfer as soon as orders for the five-year mission had been passed down. She foresaw that McCoy would not able to participate and she would stay behind with him. Even if they were to be transferred to different ships, they would still be able to meet during their shore leaves. Most importantly, she would miss him.

"Are you sure about that? I don't want to hinder your future," McCoy questioned Carol for her true desire. "If you want to go, I won't force you to stay. It is once-in-a-lifetime-chance; there might not be such opportunities again depending on the adventures the Enterprise would go through. And you are still young at twenty-six; won't you want to go on an adventure rather than sticking with a middle-age man like me?"

"Did you think I have never given a thought to my future? After going through thick and thin with you and with Joanna for the past few months, sorting out my feelings with Ambassador Spock's advice, I had realised what I really want. I know I'm going to regret it if I give up on you now," Carol explained her rationale for staying. "I want you to understand that I'm not a mindless woman who just follows her husband's orders blindly," she grabbed his arms and urged him to look at her. Her eyes were firm and unwavering. Finally McCoy relented and took her into his arms. He was touched, he really was.

"Did I hear you inferring me as your husband?"

"No, you heard it wrongly."

"Really?" Their lips met and the couple drowned into their kisses.

* * *

McCoy's concern was about to be taken care of.

"Hey, you got to be kidding me? Someone put up an adoption request to adopt my girl? Jo is not an orphan. I'm not dead and my ex-wife, her mother is having fun somewhere with another guy to a god-know-where-it-is." McCoy exclaimed in dismay.

"I'm not kidding you. I'm surprised myself too." Admiral Komack raised his voice to match his volume. Komack clasped his hands and looked at McCoy closely. "I heard that you had decided not to join the five-year mission, am I right? And your daughter was your very concern of staying."

McCoy nodded, "Yes sir!" He replied in respect. "All due respect, I believe you are aware what my girl had been through for the past few months. I can't just leave her. It's my responsibility to stay with her and which father does not wish to watch his girl growing up to be a young woman? What if she doesn't recognise me after five years when I'm back from the long journey?" McCoy chose his words carefully even though he was thinking of using metaphors to describe his mind.

"Which is why I'm hoping you will put her up for adoption so that she would have someone to watch over her. You are a valuable asset to Starfleet and I believe you are going to do great things out there. Are you aware that there was a surge in medical breakthrough in the medical field by other practitioners inspired by your willingness to try out unconventional method and untested medical theory even though it may not have been successful all the time," the admiral looked him into the eyes sincerely. "I wouldn't boast about it. Even though you are not able to preserve Captain Kirk's life, your effort was commended. I'm sure Kirk would have been happy if you joined the mission and I'm pretty sure your little princess would be proud of her father or achieving something others couldn't."

McCoy looked down in shame. He wished he could have done more.

"Think about it. I won't force you into a decision," The admiral gave him a pat on his back and smiled. "Want to get a drink? My treat!"

"Sure why not?" McCoy accepted the admiral's invitation.

* * *

And as it was, Cadet George Samuel Kirk was the one who put up the request. McCoy, Carol, and Joanna were sitting face-to-face with him and his fiancée, Aurelan. Aurelan was a petite and slim girl and was well-mannered brought up in the typical normal family.

"I'm thirty this year, a fully grown adult, financially stable with a loving wife-to-be and fully capable of taking care of your girl and giving her a family life when you are away on your adventure," Sam made his proposal as he place his arms over his fiancée. "I thought you may need that when I heard the order passed down. I still have two to three years in the Academy and perhaps an extra year for a Masters in Biology. Yes, I had decided that I will be a blue shirt like both of you. Most importantly, Joanna is agreeable," he turned to the little girl who smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I don't want to get in the way and bother my Daddy when he goes on honeymoon with Mommy! The longest honeymoon in record," Joanna said excitedly.

"Come!" Sam did a high-five with Joanna to McCoy's dismay. They had collaborated behind him and Carol. Carol cupped her mouth in surprise. Her face was as red as tomato.

"Go for it! Being able to do something with someone you loves in all areas of life are rare," Aurelan exclaimed excitedly. "Too bad I'm not as smart as George," Aurelan pouted only to have Sam poking her on her nose with her tongue stuck out.

McCoy and Carol laughed at the sight of the lovers teasing each other.

"Sister Alice says he is afraid of Aunty Aurelan," Jo whispered to her father.

"NO WAY…" Sam stuttered, and he was fed a strawberry which he took it obediently.

"As a procedure, my full name will be released to you once you flew off. Mind you it is confidential."

"What?!"

"It's only right you know as I'll be your daughter's guardian for the next five years."

* * *

McCoy stared at the night scenery from his apartment balcony reflecting on the most reckless decision he ever made in life, to entrust his daughter to someone he only knew for mere months. Entrusting his sister was supposed to be better, but yet after the incident in Cerberus, he better not send her there again. His line of thought was broken by his girlfriend who hugged him from the back.

"Carol." He greeted taking her right hand and kissed it.

"Changing your mind?" She asked while burying her face on his back.

"I'm not sure if this is a right decision to make," McCoy admitted. He just felt that he could trust Cadet Sam. He was like a reliable elder brother even though McCoy was older in age. McCoy mused. He reminded him of Jim but this was the mature and reliable version of him. Carol pulled away and stared at McCoy's back. She was amazed that her boyfriend had the same sentiment. Even she saw Jim in Sam on the day when he rescued Joanna from the clutches of Lenore Karidian who had lost her mind. She thought it must be hallucination, a side effect from the phaser stun. She smiled and hugged back once more.

"Just think of how we are going to get that green blooded hobgoblin to accept our transfer. I bet he had A LOT to say."


	15. Journey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: Set before the five-year mission in STID. Bones was going through emotional roller coaster. His daughter, Joanna was put through an ordeal similar to the infamous Tarsus IV. Bones had to help young Joanna to come to terms with what she had went through while working on a mission to only realise that his best friend was involved had been through worse than he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, we have come to the last chapter of Similarities. Thank you for hanging on with me for the past two weeks. Whether it is good or bad, it had been nice to know that there are people who support me even though I have no confidence and scared to share this with my simple plot and writing style. More importantly, I don't have much knowledge about Star Trek having only exposed to the two movies from the reboot. I really like Star Trek the very first time I watched the reboot. I love the bonds the crew of the Enterprise have despite coming from all over the place with different background, skills and personalities and they worked together to save the world.
> 
> This is meant to be the prequel of a story I was working on before Similarities came about. I didn't expect this story to have an average of 2,000 words for each chapter in contrast to 1,000-1,500 per chapter in the sequel. I will take a break after this and fortify the setting I'm planning for the sequel which in my POV going to be quite challenging to put them together.
> 
> Special thanks to Penn Flinn, Starsinger, restfulsky5 for the inspiration, setting and lines from your wonderful stories.
> 
> Virtual cookies for those who can guess who is the "mysterious" character that appeared at the end of this chapter except my beta who will get a cake instead XD. It is quite obvious, isn't it? And ahuna-chan who seen the draft of the sequel weeks ago don't qualify as well :P.
> 
> Thank you Starsinger for your guidance and beta for this story. Thank you for your advices and encouragement. I didn't know some facts at all until you mention them.
> 
> Star Trek is obviously not my property.

**Chapter 15: Journey**

The doctor couple, McCoy and Carol held hands and walk into the auditorium where the senior crew of the Enterprise gathered. McCoy pushed open the door and Chekov happened to be presenting his findings to Admiral Archer on how JT erased his existence from Starfleet's records. The boy was nervous, speaking coherently in his Russian accent.

"Zis is hov Keptin managed to delete his record," Chekov pointed his laser to the screen on all the programming codes everyone not in programming, IT etc could understand. The eighteen years old whiz kid hiccupped and paused every once in a while.

"Hang in there kid!" Scotty cheered for him waving his arm.

McCoy and Carol took a seat at the back beside Scotty and Riley.

"Dinnae expect your presence, doctor lovers." Scotty greeted the doctors not forgetting to tease them softly.

"Can you shut up!" Archer turned his head and barked. "All I can hear is your voice!" Scotty cringed at his voice.

"Aye sir," replied the 'timid-in-Archer's-presence' Scotty. McCoy and Carol looked at each other and laughed. They noticed that the Captain-to-be Spock was sitting in front and Uhura sat beside him. Sulu sat behind them in the huge but empty auditorium.

"As vor vhere Keptin did ze deletion, zis is ze place," Chekov presented a map which zoomed into the point and zoomed into a satellite version of the map and to a photo of a church, "The Brownie Orphanage".

Carol clutched on McCoy's hand and gasped. That was the same orphanage where Joanna finally relived and released her trauma in Cerberus. That was where she finally overcame her fear and accepted the whole experience.

McCoy could see in his mind a ghostly figure of Jim kneeling behind the crying Jo, touching her on her shoulder giving, her all the needed support comforting her as she released all her stress which had been trapped in the little mind of hers. He found himself moved to tears. He choked back his tears while Carol rubbed his back to soothe him.

"Damn it Jim! Damn it!" He slurred in his speech yet raising his voice enough that everyone was staring at him while he cried his eyes out covering his eyes with his arm.

Chekov down at the podium had red eyes, nodding in his direction as he wiped his own tears with the sleeve of his uniform. Spock gave him a small smile which was barely visible in the dark from the twitching of the side of his lips which, only Uhura, who was holding onto his arms, could have noticed. Scotty was in tears even though he could not be seen as he retreated a distance away only to have an unaffected Sulu staring right at his face catching him by surprise as he almost stumbled down the steps of the auditorium to be caught by Riley's quick reflexes by his arm.

"Take care, my mentor! I don't foresee myself becoming the next Chief Engineer right before our five-year mission," Riley joked. He was eventually able to let go after what had happened. Even though Starfleet had removed his debarment from the Command track, he chose to stay back in the Engineering.

In the end, Spock accepted the doctors' request for reinstatement with no questions asked. McCoy swore that he saw him smirking away. He would have never known that Spock had a hand in the arrangement of having Joanna taken care of for the next five years while he borrowed her father for the mission.

* * *

McCoy took Joanna to the mental hospital responding to his girl's shocking request. She wanted to meet the lady who had taken her hostage scaring the hell out of her and threatening to kill with a hypo at her throat. Ambassador Spock came along just in case to ease the fear of the paranoid doctor who could not refuse his daughter's request.

They smiled and nodded at Joanna who slowly approached Lenore who was tied up and sat in a corner of the cushioned wall.

Lenore turned in Joanna's direction slowly when she felt someone patting her head gently like her father always did. Tears welled up Lenore's eyes and she murmured, "Am I being a good girl, father?"

"Yes, you are. You are very brave," Joanna replied continued patting her head with her little hand to comfort her as she looked away curled up in her own world.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled suddenly. A drop of tear fell down Lenore's cheek. No one knew whether the apology was actually intended for Joanna.

* * *

Little Joanna had accepted the fact that Uncle Jim was no longer with them. She placed a bouquet of flowers on his grave. It was hard for McCoy to finally break the news to her, but it was surprisingly not too hard for her to accept that her dearest Uncle Jim was a hero who had done a lot of good deeds and because of that he became an angel. Uncle Jim would watch over them wherever he was.

Joanna had avoided using the word heaven for obvious reasons. It would still take her time before she would fully recover. McCoy would rely on Sam to help her out for that.

Ambassador Spock placed his hand on the Doctor's shoulder. All would be well.

"I will wait for the souvenir Grandpa Kitty had promised you would be bringing me," Joanna said smiling. The ambassador looked away avoiding McCoy's suspicious gaze.

_"Oh! Did I just find out that someone just lied?"_

* * *

Another two months had passed and it was the one year anniversary of the "Wrath of Vengeance" as well as the day when the rechristening ceremony for the refitted USS Enterprise was held.

The audience watched as Spock was officially appointed as the new Captain of the USS Enterprise. He recited the Captain's Oath like all captains did, with Ambassador Spock and Ambassador Sarek watching from the seats feeling quite proud of him.

Lieutenant Sulu and Ensign Chekov received their new rank from Admiral Archer, beaming in delight. As a Lieutenant Commander, Sulu was appointed as the acting First Officer as Captain Spock had yet to appoint one and he was interested in trying Sulu out on probation. Sulu would serve as a principal adviser to the Captain as well commanding the ship in the event of the captain's absence, incapacitation or death.

The crew was more worried about one of Sulu's new task which was to prepare and issue duty rosters. Who knows what kind of funny rosters he would come up with? They would not know until the ship took them out.

Spock would then decide if he would allow Sulu to outrank his Chief Medical Officer. He was intrigued by the doctor's reaction should he decide to promote Sulu.

McCoy face palmed in the fact that he had ever doubted Sulu's ability as an acting captain. He needed to constantly remind himself not to underestimate him. Who knows what he was up to beneath his smirk after he threatened John Harrison last year? That was what he was trying to advise Scotty about. In his impression, Scotty did not seem to get it. Scotty did. He just did not want to take sides. He could foresee a 'healthy' rivalry between the CMO and the new Captain.

As Spock was promoted, the late Captain James Tiberius Kirk was also commended and promoted a rank above Spock, a befitting rank of Fleet Captain for his deed one year ago. It was unfortunate that he did not live to receive the rank. He was also awarded a Medal of Honour.

* * *

"Jo, be a good girl for Uncle Sam ok?" McCoy knelt down to her height and reminded her for the umpteenth time. "Complain to Aunty Aurelan or Sister Alice who can take him in hand if he is naughty ok?" Sam rolled his eyes.

"Rest assured that I will take care of her," Sam reassured McCoy who gave him a pat on his back and held out his hand and Sam took it gladly. "Before you know it, she will have become a sexy young girl by the time you return attracting all the boys around," Sam added as a joke only to have his ear pulled by Aurelan. "I'm sorry."

They were seeing off the crew of the Enterprise as they bade farewell to their loved ones.

McCoy wrapped his arms around Joanna, "Daddy will miss you."

"Me too," Joanna hugged back, "and I will miss Dr. Marcus." Joanna broke free from McCoy and embraced Carol who gave her a hug in return. "Can I call you Mommy?" she asked eagerly. Carol looked at the little girl and caressed her face. The only time when she called her mommy was when she was captured by Lenore due to her negligence. Carol nodded and gave her another hug. McCoy looked away in embarrassment.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you come back with Joanna's little brother and sister in five years time," Sam teased, noticing how shy the doctor was.

"Farewell and we wish you all the best!" Aurelan waved as the doctors headed to the shuttle.

The rest of the crew bade farewells to their loved ones.

Uhura hugged her granny hoping that that would not be the last time she saw her due to her advanced age. Uhura's granny nagged at Spock on 101 how-to-care-for-Nyota, much to the Vulcan nonchalance. It was hard to talk to a 'robot'.

Sulu's grandma was no better. She stuffed him with loads of tonic reminding him to take them to maintain his health, much to Chekov's jealousy. His parents had not packed too much stuff for him despite him being their only child, while Riley could only watch from afar with no one sending him off because he was an orphan.

"You still have us, Kevin! Welcome to the family!" Scotty had his arms over Riley's shoulders which further burdened his back because of the heavy haversack Scotty carried on his back. Riley smiled in solace that he did have a family.

"It's nice to have a family."

Scotty chased Keenser onboard the shuttle not realizing that Admiral Archer, who was standing at one corner watching him, came to see him off. Scotty was a pain in the ass to him but he was sure he would gain much from the mission and hopefully "grow up".

* * *

The crew took their respective areas of positions on the bridge of the Enterprise and Scotty had just announced that the lady was ready for the long journey.

McCoy was pacing up and down tickling Carol to laugh at him. "Five years in space... God help me!" he whined only to have the Captain asking, "As a mission of this duration has never been attempted, where should we go, Doctor?"

This incurred the wrath of the paranoid doctor.

"Don't take more than you need!" he screeched at his arrogant Vulcan Captain until his PADD beeped sending him the full profile of Joanna's guardian whom he swore he wanted to wring his neck when he returned in five years. Spock ignored his protest and sat on his Captain chair.

"Mr. Sulu, take us out." Spock commanded.

"Aye Captain!"

* * *

A woman was seen walking very quickly to her daughter's room in a secret residence. Today was the decisive day to learn if her daughter would wake up. That was the instruction her husband had given to her according to a mysterious man he had met. To leave her alone no matter what happen for a duration of one year.

She held her breath as her daughter stirred from her long sleep. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Mommy," she tried to focus her gaze on her mother who cried her eyes out in relief for her husband sacrifice would not have been in vain.

"Lucille!" She cried in happiness.

* * *

At the far end of the universe, a charming elderly man with hazelnut coloured eyes in his sixties was observing. Many screens with many happenings in many places out of the universe appeared before him. He noticed a screen which featured a familiar jellyfish-like starship warping across the galaxy.

Turning his back to an unknown individual, he declared, "The game is on!"

One of the screens zoomed out to a blue planet which was the same and extremely similar to a planet known as the Earth.


End file.
